I recently came across this quote. I really love it because it seems to be true.

I like to think I'm a beautiful person in this sense. Of course, in this life I'll always be a work in progress, but I'm definitely striving to become so.

In my experience, life is so different before you've known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, or known loss. Before you know these things, it's the little, petty things that consume & fog up your life. Appreciation, understanding & sensitivity in ones life are dimmed.

After walking through two years of sadness, defeat & loss with Jonathan, my life perspective has been altered.  For a moment after Jonathan's death I found myself in the depths, speechless at the harshness of life. All of the little stuff in life that used to be big stuff faded into the background. The moment lifted as the foreground blazed with an emphatic sense of life & purpose. I must live this life to the fullest. Fear cannot be an excuse. The what-ifs cannot be an excuse. With the life that we have, we must strive to be beautiful people!

Living with purpose begins with love. By loving & giving yourself to love, you will live a full life, pleasing to G*d. You will find your true, beautiful self.

Mark 8:34-37
Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to saving yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? What could you ever trade your soul for?

1 Peter 3:8-12
Summing up: Be agreeable, be sympathetic, be loving, be compassionate, be humble. That goes for all of you, no exceptions. No retaliation. No sharp-tongued sarcasm. Instead, bless—that's your job, to bless. You'll be a blessing and also get a blessing. Whoever wants to embrace life and see the day fill up with good, here's what you do: Say nothing evil or hurtful; Snub evil and cultivate good; run after peace for all you're worth. G*d looks on all this with approval, listening and responding well to what he's asked; But he turns his back on those who do evil things.

Hope & Love,
Audrey