Lesson 16, reason #466: "The days are long, but the years are short." [Think about it. And then think about it again and again...]
Lesson 17, reason #467: "I grasped two things - I wasn't as happy as I could be, and my life wasn't going to change unless I made it change. In that single moment, with that realization, I decided to dedicate a year to trying to be happier."
Lesson 18, reason #468: Life is one long, continuous happiness project. Okay, so those are my words. Here are more of hers:
"I needed to think about this. How could I discipline myself to feel grateful for my ordinary day? How could I set a higher standard for myself as a wife, a mother, a writer, a friend? How could I let go of everyday annoyances to keep a larger, more transcendent perspective? I could barely remember to stop at the drugstore to buy toothpaste--it didn't seem very realistic to think that I could incorporate these high aims into my everyday routine...
I had a brief vision of myself living for a month on a picturesque, windswept island, where each day I would gather seashells, read Aristotle and write in an elegant parchment journal. Nope, I admitted, that's not going to happen. I needed to find a way to do it here and now. I needed to change the lens through which I viewed everything familiar."
Yes, yes, yes. Amen and amen and amen.
-Me