earlier today, my best friend timothy and i were having a conversation about... well, things happening in our lives that seem (to me) impossibly hard to survive. And the best response I could muster was "dude, life sucks. through and through." and he responded timidly and firmly (only tim is capable of weaving those two together) "no it doesn't. it's beautiful."

i wish i didn't believe him but i do.

I was holding my 14 month old niece tonight while her mother was wrapping strands of lights around a beautiful spruce tree. I touched my niece's hand and said "dang Bella Bea, your hands are freezing!" I cupped her hand inside of mine and hhhaaaaaaaah-ed into it. Bella stared at me with her enormous eyes as I did this. When I was done, she so gently took my hand, held it up to her face and exhaled softly from her nose. My heart has not felt that warm in a very long time.