Amour Fati*

1) blowing bubbles in the park on a warm, sunny day
2) sand between your toes
3) a cup of hot chocolate to warm your hands, strolling around the neighborhood looking at holiday lights
4) catching the most amazing sunset...in your car, on a hike, at the beach...
5) windows rolled down. radio turned up. driving through a canyon lined with trees.
6) sprinklers on a hot day
7) balloons
8) ceiling fans
9) kittens discovering snow for the first time
10) a really good workout you didn't even know you needed
11) brightly colored glass lanterns
12) a busy neighborhood of kids (or a full house of kid-minded adults) on Halloween
13) thank you notes that arrive in the mail
14) first official day of flip flops
15) working at a job that lets you observe the first official day of flip flops
16) fireworks
17) knowing a quicker way home than the rest of the city
18) sleepovers, even when you're a grown up
19) brand new notebooks, a fresh stack of pencils, new pens, beginning a new pad of post its...
20) exact change
21) refusing to answer the phone if it's not a good time
22) movie previews
23) babies + ice cream
24) dogs + peanut butter
25) the cool underside of the pillow in the middle of the night
26) a cold glass of strawberry lemonade, not too watered down but with just enough ice, on a porch in the mid-afternoon summer heat
27) friends, family, and how interchangeable the two are
28) finding out that someone spoke highly of you, behind your back, and had no way of knowing it would get back to you
29) faith
30) fireplaces lit on chilly evenings
31) spending all day cooking for a very special meal -- and having it turn out really, really well.
32) rainy Sunday afternoon -- burrowing under the blankets with a good book
33) feeling confident in your decisions
34) quitting a job
35) an unexpected check in the mail
36) handwritten notes
37) finding your theme song -- and then singing it loudly and joyfully for all the world to hear
38) making a healthy choice, even if it's not your FIRST choice
39) throwing away or donating things you no longer need
40) letting it go
41) kissing in public
42) picnics
43) having someone make an extra effort to correct a mistake that happened to you
44) root beer from a glass bottle
45) shooting stars
46) colorful fish
47) crayons
48) being good friends with one or more of your parents
49) listening
50) loving yourself, in all your imperfect glory


* "Amour Fati -- 'Love Your Fate', which is in fact your life." -- Friedrich Nietzsche