Smile

I woke up this morning with the smell of bacon and eggs drifting through the cracks of my bedroom door. Not much else could make me get up at nine o'clock on a Saturday morning.
My nose was also greeted with the smell of the fresh morning dew. Apparently the windows had been opened. It was the smell of an early morning just waking up.

And as I sit here, eating my delicious eggs and bacon, taking in the smells of a fresh spring morning, listening to the birds outside, and the newfound love of my music life (Jack Johnson), I am overflowing.

I am overflowing with a calm happiness. My joy has been made full. I have been amazingly and abundantly blessed.

God has placed some incredible people in my life. I knew right away how awesome some of them were. But others took awhile before I really got to know them, and realized how big of an impact they had had on my life.

And as I sit here, I realize I love my life right now. I have found a comfortable place of perfection. But in the next year, I will have to change and start over. I'll go off to college. I will leave my friends, my mentors, my family, and my heroes. I have become incredibly attached to many people the past few years. And when that last day comes, I will cry like there is no tomorrow. On that Saturday in June next year, as I walk down the aisle, and wear my cap and gown, I will be scared out of my wits. I have found comfort in my school, my teachers, my peers, my family. I like comfort. But one cannot stay comfortable and continue to grow. If I want to continue becoming the person God has created me to be, I must be willing to step out of my comfort zone.

So I must make the most of the time I have left with these people that I love. I must choose every word with the utmost care. I will smile, and share with them my joy. And as the end of this chapter of my life begins to close, I can do nothing less than tell them how they have helped write it. I will show them how they have added to my overflowing joy. I will show them the amazing ways that God has used them to make me a better person. I might see them quite often after my new life begins, but some I may not see ever again. That is the part that threatens to crush my joy. But I won't let it.

This joy is too real. It is too amazing, too lovely to let anything smother it. So I will dwell on these amazing blessings, and will be enormously happy that I have been given them, even if for a short time. And with each smile that I offer, I will attempt to spread my joy. May it be an infectious disease. May it pour onto those around me - those that I love. Because my heart is overflowing with nothing... but joy.

A reason to succeed

To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

I don't want to die

Whoever said that death has to be physical? It can be spiritual; emotional

Whoever said that breathing made you full of life? I have seen many people that are sucking air, but are empty - devoid of purpose.

I am alive. But am I truly living in my fullest potential? I want to be strong in all that I do. I want to go to bed every night knowing that I lived fully.

It's so easy to let monotonous routines consume your purpose. It takes less effort to get up each day, and live just for the sake of living. Before you know it, you walked through your whole day, and did a whole lot without accomplishing much of anything. But what about purpose? Where does it fit in? If you don't make it a priority, everything else will smother it. Be purposeful. Don't let yourself die.

I want to live.