starry night

Sometimes, life throws sucker punches. 

Or maybe it just tries to jolt us into becoming more aware of what's really important.

In the past two years, i've lost a good friend to cancer, my own mother was diagnosed and

is currently in chemotherapy, my father had a severe heart attack and

i've had a few health scares myself,

which i now attribute to mentalpause - (menopause my ass...)

More recently, we have close friends who are going through very difficult times...

I know it sounds so cliché, but when you lose your health, you lose everything.

Nothing else matters.

I've always found it hard to distance myself from another person's pain.

I still work hard on that one,

looking for that right balance between being there for support

and not losing myself in the process.

So whenever i begin to feel overwhelmed,

and there are too many stories of children being abused in the news,

and honour killings,
and cancer,

and acid burnings -

I pull myself out,

and find my way to the good things.

To a long walk in the cold winter air,

and a starry night sky,

and the moon,

if only to remind myself that amongst the chaos of all this "badness"

there is still "goodness" as well.

I get what Ralph Waldo Emerson was saying

when he spent so much time alone in his little cabin in the woods.

Nature is indifferent.

Where i am looking at a beautiful full moon,

someone else is drowning somewhere in the world.

Gratitude for what you have,

or where you are,

or who you are is so important.

If you can't be grateful when things are good,

you'll never make it when things get bad.

Be grateful today, ok?

Don't complain over a broken fingernail.

Think of those who have so much less than you do on this day.

xoxo