I am all the places I have been, the sights I have seen, the marvels I have witnessed. And most importantly, the lives and souls I have touched. Life & love are risky ventures. Each passing moment, every victory and defeat is but another brushstroke adding to the canvas. With every heartbreak and debilitating pain, I can only rise. Again and again.

I can only choose – to be crippled or to embrace this one life with wild abandon. To live life with passion. With heart. With unbridled joy. With deep, genuine love.

I cannot let a mistake be more expensive than it already is. I will not let it derail my life. I need to be determined to fix problems quickly because my whole life is waiting for me.

Sometimes the only way is through. I will learn to sit through the hurt, the betrayal and process my feelings through it.

I can’t change the past but I will choose to live every day with courage, with the wisdom that what doesn’t break me will make me.

What God gives, God can take. What God takes, he can return in abundance.

And someday, one day, despite not having clear visibility, I know I will look back on my life and find it to be a work of art.

April 15. You can’t outrun your pain. You are strong enough to face whatever is in front of you.