Some assembly required.

Snowmen fall from heaven... unassembled. - Anonymous

I thought this quote fitting given the state of my sidewalks and the streets I had to drive through this morning to get home.

When I was a kid, we lived in North Dakota for a couple of years. While the frigid temperatures might drive some mad, it was a magical time for me. We learned the value of being able to spend time outside. We learned that it's okay to go ice skating when it's ten below and the wind chill is dropping rapidly. We learned that some of the best moments are the quiet ones, watching the snow fall together, wrapped in blankets near the heat spewing from the register. We learned to appreciate the snow days... and the days that we actually made it to school.

Something that I didn't realize back then was that the tools for a good life, for success, for happiness, were already at hand. No, that's a recent development.

You see, we are all capable of making the decisions necessary to move forward with our lives. We have the tools to learn what needs to be learned to enjoy success. We all are capable accepting the past and the outcomes of the future. We all are worthy of happiness. It's a choice.

The gifts of heaven are showered upon us when we enter this world. All we need to do is use them. Yes, we are like the snowmen. And like the snowmen, some assembly is required. Thankfully, we have all the gizmos, devices, means, and implements to do the job.

Let's play pretend!

Be careful what you pretend to be because you are what you pretend to be. - Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night

I have some very distinct memories of pretending as a kid. I remember being a princess, being the Wicked Witch of the West (possibly the most fun), being a pilot, being a damsel in distress (hanging off the cliff that was my bunkbed), and being a cashier at McDonald's (I'm not kidding). It's safe to play pretend when you're a child; you know that if you don't like what you're doing you can always become something else. There's no worry about changing careers, going back to school, finding the money to go back to school, worrying about success and failure. When you're a child, these things don't exist - they are merely the figments of adult imaginations.

Which makes me wonder: do we have this thing all wrong?

Maybe the starting of being the thing we really want to be is in the pretending. The confident stance, the image of that success, the feel of that accomplishment, even if not achieved already, can only push us towards that endeavor. If things don't work out exactly as we'd hoped, we can change our minds and do something else or start again. Life isn't a fixed state. So how can we be?

People debate what "time" really is - an illusion, a mental construct, a tangible measurement? Is it relative or constant? I really don't know. You could listen to a dozen different physicists and still have no real answer. But if time is an illusion (and it could be), then the person you might be lies within you already. I think.

Open mouth and insert ... well, you know.

My fellow astronauts... - Dan Quayle, former Vice President of the United States, beginning a speech at an Apollo 11 anniversary.

Sometimes I find myself in some exciting or unnerving situation where my brain has utterly failed me. My mind races at a hundred miles an hour, running through word after word, phrase after phrase, and for some reason, the appropriate thing to say won't come out of my mouth.

It's hard to stay in the moment when you are thinking about so many different things, from outcomes of actions to what you had for breakfast that morning. But I find that grounding myself, slowing down, and being present - especially during these situations - can prevent something like the above quote from happening. A big breath in, a good and full exhale, and I'm back in business.

At the same time, it's quite the reminder of how human I am when I manage to mess up what I meant to say, or when I should've just kept my mouth shut. And when the most visible or admired people in the world do exactly the things that I dread doing myself, it's comforting to know that we all are capable of these mistakes, big or small. It also makes it easier to laugh at myself from time to time.

Nothing to fear but...

Things will happen in your life that you can't stop. But that's no reason to shut out the world. - Walter Sparrow (as Crazy Pete) in the film Now and Then (1995)

I know what it's like to fear the things that might happen. It prevents people from doing the things they love, from having the life they really want to live. Fear can be paralytic and irrational. It can tie us down and keep us from truly living.

But just because the worst might happen, doesn't mean that it will. You hear stories of people who live in the harshest of political climates who defy what "might be" because life does go on.

If the bad happens, let it happen. Not everything can be prevented. So hold your head high, and take life with every stride because by trying to shut out all the bad, you will end up missing out on all the good.

One characteristic to get you through life...

If you could choose one characteristic that would get you through life, choose a sense of humor. - Jennifer Jones

I'm sorry to say this, but I can't live without humor. What's the point? It would be like dragging myself through each and every day. No laughter? How would one keep from pitching him or herself off a steep cliff?

Some people live for the funny. Some people have made rather lucrative careers out of the funny. It surrounds us, through unexpected comments and ill-timed steps. It follows us into the bathroom and, for some, it's the little person they gave birth to. It keeps us sane and helps us to overcome our greatest grief. What does one do without a good sense of humor?

Granted, I take myself too seriously from time to time. There are moments when I am caught up in the things that are important to me. Thankfully, I have been blessed with an abundance of people who keep me laughing, lending a perspective of the world that is pragmatic and thoughtful.

A sense of humor leads to lightness, a life full of happiness. Laughing should be an item on everyone's agenda each day.

Have you laughed today?

Humming my way through life

We should consider every day lost in which we have not danced at least once. - Friedrich Nietzsche

I'm a habitual hummer. I can't help it. Usually, I don't even realize I've been doing it until I catch myself after some time or someone points it out. Some might consider this a nuisance. But I have to say, despite not always realizing I've started my little monotone ditties, without humming, my life might be a little less full.

Nietzsche might prefer my dancing to humming. I'm not much of a dancer, but from time to time, I can't help it. The right tune and the right mood, and before I know it, the sway of my hips gets the best of me.

Humming, dancing, singing (which I'm prone to doing in the car). All these things develop out of a personal joy that requires nothing outside ourselves, something so pure and honest, it defies explanation.

I dare you to sing or dance or hum everyday and not be contentedly happy. You don't have to be ecstatic every moment of your life to be happy. But these collections of moments over the course of a lifetime can be what defines us for the short time we are here.

Only middles.

You're searching, Joe, for things that don't exist; I mean beginnings. Ends and beginnings -- there are no such things. There are only middles. - Robert Frost

You know, I have a bit of a morbid streak. (I think most people do, but they won't admit it.) And I was remembering the day that my beloved Grandpa died some four years ago. My family gathered in the hospital room and we watched him slip away. It wasn't sudden, like you see on TV. It was more of a fading, so much so that we aren't really sure when exactly he was gone. His heartbeat just grew slower and slower, until it was so faint. It was one of the saddest experiences I've ever had, and yet one of the most special. Odd how that works.

So, I thought of him and that day when I first read Robert Frost's wise words, because there really was no defined "death". That moment wasn't clear. But if you think about it, there's so little definition to our beginning. When do we become real? At conception? When we appear human in the ultrasounds? When we're born? When, exactly, is our beginning?

And so I've come to realize that life's definition, its truth isn't defined by birth or death. It's everything in between that's important. Besides birth and death aren't really the beginning and end of anything. Rather, they are continuations, only in different forms. This is comforting, isn't it?

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Joy in living!

Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough. - Emily Dickinson

On this day in 1830, Emily Dickinson was born. In honor of that, I thought we should reflect on one of her quotes.

Though not an avid bible reader myself, I love Psalms 118:24 - This is the day that the Lord hath made; we should rejoice and be glad in it.

When you wake in the morning, are you excited to rise and greet the day? Do you anticipate your schedule, who you will see, what you will do?

No matter your attitude about how life came to be on this small rotating sphere making its way through the heavens, you have to admit what an amazing thing it is to live.

Consider a baby: One day, it didn't exist. Maybe it wasn't even a thought in his or her parents' minds. And the next day, there it is. And roughly nine to ten months later, it appears to the world as something brand new. Isn't that truly astounding? How can something seem to come from nothing?

Life is remarkable. Remarkable! And for that we should feel a sense of excitement. It seems Miss Dickinson had it right.