In love with LIFE!

I stumbled across this image tonight. I posted it to Facebook a year ago. What a great nugget of goodness. I'm grateful for re-discovering it. It really sums up my life right now, this dream I feel like I've been in for about the past 5 months. It deserves its own blog, the reason for my elation and feeling of overwhelming love. This person, our relationship, has so filled me up that I'm just spilling over with gratitude. I've wanted to blog about it for sometime now but want to be sure my words perfectly sum up what I'm feeling. I fear words can't possibly describe it. In the meantime, I'll share another reason I love life and love LOVE itself. If you're in need of a reason to love life, maybe this will help!

Check out or check back in with music. It's my go-to cure-all, my religion you could say. It's where I find all of the answers or find the ability to discover them within myself. Find something that sends shivers up your spine, makes you jump and dance, makes you cry or propels you to call an old friend and tell them how much you miss them. Can't think of anything? Take a listen to the song below. AMAZING! Just makes you want to stand up and say HALLELUJAH, thank you, I love you, I am grateful! The lyrics are filled with such pain, struggle and desperation, and the music just rips you open, tears open your heart. I can never get over the fact that music can have this effect: exposing such raw emotion yet be so uplifting in the same verse - such a paradox. I heard this song tonight, performed by another great singer on Glee and was in tears about 30 seconds into it. I don't know why I was crying. I think I was initially crying because you just can't escape the sorrow the singer is portraying. It draws you in. But then as the song progressed, I was also crying because I was so happy to be connecting with a song so deeply, so immediately. I'm so grateful that my mind and my heart are always open to this and that I'm able to feel so strongly and connect instantly with music and performers. I love the unexpectedness of artistic impression. You never know when something will strike you - wake you up from your monotonous daily grind, rattle your emotions to the surface and force you to get real with yourself. As the song builds, the choir enters, a symbol of rejoicing and a pillar of spiritual strength. Gospel choirs always evoke a sense of comfort and triumph, like everything is going to be ok when I hear them. Triumph for the singer and for the listener. The singer and the choir in this song are like love - the juxtaposition of opposing emotions. Love can make you sad, afraid, and confused yet it has the ability to bring you more joy, light, and comfort than anything in the world. And what would life be without love, even with the fear of losing it? This is something I've been deeply struggling with recently. I think I've been subconsciously trying to understand it for years but recent events have really brought it to the surface. And, I'm grateful for the ability to work through it and learn to accept the paradox. And, I'm grateful to have this outlet to admit it! And with that, experiencing this song tonight reminded me how music can so beautifully mirror life and love. And how powerful love can be. Chilling. Scary. Painful. But what's better than love? As I said, I often find the answers in music and maybe now I'm one step closer to working through and accepting the ying and yang of love.

I couldn't decide on which version of this song to share as they're both breathtaking. You decide!

Aretha's version (the original):



Patti's version:



After listening to the pain of these lyrics, I'm so grateful I have someone who lets me love them!