What does it take for someone to realize life is a gift?

What has it taken for you to realize life is a gift? Have you even realized that yet? Are you just waiting till your OLDER to realize it? Or is this something only a select few get the pleasure of experiencing? I suppose there is no real answer. Although I can say that this is something my friends and I have been talking about lately. It seems as though we all have had something happen to us in the past year that has made us ditch our old ways and create new ones. 2013 was one HELL of a year for me and its ending followed suit. Death, deceit, betrayal, neglect, hurt, and abandonment are just a few words to sum up my 2013. But what was 2013 for you? Was it filled with happiness, joy, passion, love, and new beginnings? No matter what we experience and at any age we begin to wonder why? Why me? Why now? God soon provides the answers you are looking for if you pay attention. For me, it took attempting to commit suicide to change my life. To look at my past and realize it was my past. To realize my past didn't define the woman I was. To realize the mistakes I made were not mistakes at all but learning curves. To realize that I survived because there was something bigger headed my way. (As if surviving CF wasn't a wake up call enough). What has it taken you to realize this? One friend mentioned, "It took every ounce of respect I had for myself to be lost." While another friend mentioned he had a collapsed lung that changed his point of view on life. Whatever it may be it all happens for a reason. It's our goal to figure that reason out, accept it, move past it, and make the one life we have better. So after something that impacts your life so much that you actually ditch your old ways, how do you create new ones? I looked at myself and simply said, "You are better than what you have been. This is your year!" That being said I had to painfully critique myself on what I was doing wrong in my life, the bad things about me, the faults I wasn't fully accepting, and the lies I kept telling myself. I realized I had hit rock bottom and there was seriously no way out but up. I created a HUGE list. A list of things I wanted to become, the traits I wanted to have, and the type of person I wanted to be. I am happy to say I am working very hard to be the type of person everyone wants to know and be around.o make yOnce something so catastrophic happens in your life it's not meant to just be left alone in the past. It is meant to change us. Allow it to change you. Allow it tou grow. Grow in ways you never knew were possible. While there are holidays such as Valentine's Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas to remind us to take care of the ones we love and to be kind to strangers I am a firm believer that it shouldn't take a holiday to have to remind you to tell someone you love them. As well as it shouldn't take a near death experience for you to realize life is a gift. That it should be treated with respect, pride, and the excitement of moving forward towards your dream. While you sit and wonder what has happened to you to make you realize this or you are wondering when/ if this will ever happen to you. I encourage you to simply send an "I love you" text to someone you couldn't go a day without, give a hug to your mom the next time you see her for no reason, hold the door for a complete stranger, and let someone in front of you the next time you are stuck in traffic... YES, let that one person in. The race is long. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes your behind but in the end its only with yourself. 

I will leave you with one of my most favorite quotes that helps me push through my hard days.

"The best has yet to come" 

If we give up now well never our best!!! Make 2014 your year, to appreciate, to give, to live, and to love.