Juliana Anderson / A visual diary

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Reblog

Teaspoon Of Happy: TELL SOMEONE YOU LOVE THEM TODAY

by Sarah May Bates

Today I was asked to help Hello Giggles honor the anniversary of 9/11, a subject that is too big for all of us and still too painful for many of us to talk about, let alone blog about. So today I honor the tragedy with what I believe we can do in the face of it. On the 10^th anniversary of the day that changed everything as we know it, honor the memory of those lost and their families by telling someone you do have in your life that you love them.

There are few situations in life that instantly bring everything into sharp focus. It’s usually a birth, death, celebration, tragedy – an unexpected or impossible event. Something so big that it causes you to re-calibrate everything you know to be true. The bright flood lights that show you what matters most: who you wish you told you were sorry, who you wish you spent time with and what you wish you could change.

It shouldn’t be just these events that bring out this awareness. It should be something we can access when we take life for granted. When we are annoyed, dissatisfied, petty. The times we are hurtful and punishing. When we get mad at traffic. When we complain about a wrong order. Nothing matters more in life than having health and happiness, and the health and happiness of those you love. If you have those things, you are the luckiest person in the world. Money means nothing in the face of that. It has no value except for its value as it relates to those things.

It’s hard to feel that way when your having a crappy day or month or year or five years. But wherever you are in life, you have things to be grateful for. Sometimes I write a list of those things so that I can be truly aware of the good in my life. Even the small or seemingly frivolous things en masse add up to be great. The majority of my list is always the people I have in my life. I am so, so grateful to have them all and I hope to never waste a second with them that could be savored. I hope they always know what they mean to me, and that I love them, and how much.

Today I invite you to ponder this piece of your life and let it make you happy for all that is good. Celebrate your friends, your spouse, your parents, your partner, your neighbor, your boss, your sister, niece, grandfather, the checker you see every week at the grocery store. If there’s a person you’ve been thinking about but haven’t talked to in a while or a person you talk to all the time but you just haven’t told them how you feel, reach out today.  Life is precious and fragile, and it is a gift that we have all been given. Let us remember that today.

Featured image from Linus Gerber’s Flickr gallery

(Source: hellogiggles)