"My plan is to embrace inspiration from whichever direction it may come and to whatever intensity it may arrive." -Kevin

The past few weeks has been filled with ups and downs that have left me at a loss for words. 

I've learned a few things.  Through trials and hard times, if you focus on loving those around you, you will flourish.  If you make a choice to be joyful, it will be harder for you to fall down and cower under life's anxieties and uncertainties.  Something about joy gives us strength and a supernatural energy to fight against struggles.  Merely "hanging on" leaves us weak and weary- but when we are proactive in choosing joy we remain strong and unmoved from what grounds us.

I have found myself wanting to break down when life's uncertainties hit me.  Wanting to fall to the ground, defeated.  But I hate feeling defeated. I hate being unhappy and hopeless. I despise it.  I think for a while in my life I enjoyed wallowing in those feelings, because they felt safe, but now I can't stand to be in the same room as Defeat and Hopelessness.

What gives me strength is choosing joy.  It's a choice for me, not necessarily a feeling. Through this choice I do things in life that offer strength- small things like Laugh and Encourage...Enjoy simple things, choose to Invest in those around me.  I cannot merely hang on, I have put myself out there, offering myself to others, giving all that I've got.  This is the key for me.