March is a magical month. This weekend is my Mom's birthday and I celebrate her existance with every cell in my body! This weekend my husband and I celebrate our 2 year anniversary. Our life is not easy right now for many reasons. Infertility is a heartbreak and I hope that we will get our miracle soon. My Mom has been through the wringer this year but she seems to be feeling a little better and for that I am grateful beyond belief. My sister Tammy is struggling too but she seems just a little happier than she did when she moved here and I am grateful for that. That brings me to my point... March is a magical month.

If there is one thing I have learned in this life it is that gratitude and appreciation are the keys to everything in this life. I just posted this in my friends blog because she made an entire post about gratitude. I decided that was something worth writing (or typing) about. I am grateful. Grateful for so much and so many. Despite all our hardships this year, we have not been alone, and we have not been without.

It is easy to let anger, frustration, and sadness overwhelm, and sometimes I let it.

But I do not want to be that person. I want to be the kind of person, the kind of friend, wife, mother, daughter, sister, who believes in the bigger picture. I want to hold on to the idea that things work out, I want to believe that life is good. I want to be reliable and strong, someone that can be counted on in a storm. I don't want to hide out in fear, I don't want to resort to worrying more about myself than my friends and family. Gratitude lets me believe in serving others, appreciation reminds me that there is ALWAYS enough, if I remember what is most important.

Gratitude and appreciation are the best foundation for relationships, for life. March is a month of birthdays, anniversaries, and last but not least: SPRING! Spring brings in everything new, it ushers in our hopes, our dreams, and reminds us that the magic of life is in all the little things... it's in the birds and the bees and all the flowers blooming; it's pulling out the deck chairs and sitting under the oak tree; it's about cleaning out the old; it's about letting ourselves change; letting ourselves be more; it's about loving all the intangible reasons that life is worth celebrating.