life

by

Life is Beautiful

I found out this week that a girl I know was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) at 28 years young. She is more than a mere acquaintance, but not quite a close friend. Aside from my mother’s mental illness, this is the closest I’ve been to anyone receiving devastating news about one’s health.  I hear of things – but they never (thankfully) hit close to home…

It puts life into rather harsh perspective. I remind myself to thank God for a healthy body and a healthy mind – every single day. Neither is guarenteed, and not everyone is so blessed to have both. You can lose either literally overnight.

This girl is an inspiration with the way she is dealing with her diagnosis. There is no cure for MS, and she knows she has a long road ahead, but her spirits remain high and she’s focusing on the positives. It makes me feel so bad for all the complaining I do. Because life is pretty wonderful – and even she knows it.

3 Reasons to Travel While You’re Young

“Be careful of the yeah-but. The yeah-but will kill your dreams.”

“When you get older, life seems to just sort of happen to you. Your youth is a time of total empowerment. You get to do what you want.”

“Do not squander this time. You will never have it again.”

Love this article (link in title)! I definitely feel like I’ve wasted so much time in this regard, and I am acutely aware of how fleeting my youth is. I can only hope that by spring 2014, life will have settled down enough where I can actually make plans without them getting ruined.

Of course, this time last year, I thought 2013 would be our year… lol so much for that. 🙂

3 Reasons to Travel While You’re Young

“One’s life, viewed as a whole, is always the answer to the most important questions. Along the way, does it matter what one says, what words and principles one chooses to justify oneself? At the very end, one’s answers to the questions the world has posted…are to be found in the facts of one’s life.

Who are you? What did you actually want? What could you actually achieve? At what points were you loyal or disloyal or brave or a coward? And one answers as best one can…but that’s not so important. What’s important is that finally one answers with one’s life.”

– Embers, Sandor Marai

“When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down “happy.” They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.”

– John Lennon

Cakes have gotten a bad rap. People equate virtue with turning down dessert. There is always one person at the table who holds up her hand when I serve the cake. No, really, I couldn’t she says, and then gives her flat stomach a conspiratorial little pat. Everyone who is pressing a fork into that first tender layer looks at the person who declined the plate, and they all think, That person is better than I am. That person has discipline. But that isn’t a person with discipline; that is a person who has completely lost touch with joy. A slice of cake never made anybody fat. You don’t eat the whole cake. You don’t eat a cake every day of your life. You take the cake when it is offered because the cake is delicious. You have a slice of cake and what it reminds you of is someplace that’s safe, uncomplicated, without stress. A cake is a party, a birthday, a wedding. A cake is what’s served on the happiest days of your life. This is a story of how my life was saved by cake, so, of course, if sides are to be taken, I will always take the side of cake.

– Jeanne Ray