Fall in Love with Life

Last week as I was flying home from Belize, I finished A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, a book my sister had long been recommending. The New York Public Library called this novel one of the "Books of the Century," and I agree. I'm not sure if it was the book or the close of an overwhelmingly emotional week in Belize, but either way, it made me cry. Yes, that's right... I cried on the plane. I was so embarrassed. To no avail, I was trying to cover up the sniffles as usual allergies and the tears as something that was in my eye. I'm not quite sure the old man next to me was convinced.

I learned a lot from this book. For tonight, however, I have one thought to share that has been on my mind all week. Since Betty Smith is an acclaimed writer and I am not, I will simply quote from a short piece of hers included in the appendix. It is called Fall in Love with Life, and it says:

As a listening child, I often heard older people say: "Oh the plans I made!" And "What dreams I had!" And the inevitable: "If only I had my life to live over..." I reasoned that these men and women had missed the fullness of life somehow. But I wasn't going to miss it... I came to a clear conclusion, and it is a universal one: To live, to struggle, to be in love with life--in love with all life holds, joyful or sorrowful--is fulfillment. The fullness of life is open to all of us.

Sometimes it is easy to get through a day simply by saying "tomorrow will be better." We all do it--in fact, I said it to myself today. But we must live in the now; we must appreciate every stage of life we are in. As one of my favorite people on this planet, Mr. Dave Matthews, poetically sings, "the future is no place to place our better days."

Just a thought.