Dear Whoever You Are,

I wish I had inspiring words for you.
I wish I could offer you the morsel of wisdom that pulls just tight enough on the frayed strands in your life to tie them in a pretty bundle.

But I don't. I can't. I won't.

I will give you the truth.

We are all flawed.  We are all beautiful.  We are all ugly.  We are all exactly who we are: molded by decisions, by dreams, by fears, and by every day ordinary moments. There are a few milestones in every life that will completely change it's course, but more often than not, it's the baby steps that lead us to what we become.  Somewhere along the road to who-you-want-to-be from who-you-used-to-be, you find yourself staring at the reflection of who-you-thought-you-were, and that's when you fall back into the puddle of who-you-are-now.  It's a glorious disaster. It's waking up one morning, and seeing your mother in the mirror.   It's singing every word to a song that you didn't realize you had heard before.  It's finding yourself in the middle of an illness you didn't know you were fighting.  It's making the decisions that are right for you, with or without support. It's life, and life is hard.  No matter what choices you make. No matter what your social or economic status.  No matter what your religion. No matter what lifestyle you choose. No matter what.  Life is hard, and you're going to come out of it different than when you came into it.  It will rub you down like sandpaper, and press you from every side, but you get to choose if you become sawdust or a diamond.  The hard sneaks up on you, but so does the good. The trick is to not focus so intently on the clouds that you trip over the sunshine.

Still, clouds are beautiful...