Happiness for Beginners

by Katherine Center

“It’s my battle cry: Appreciate Everything.”

that there will come a day when things are so hopeless that the only way we’ll get through will be to turn to our person, whoever it is, in our heads—so we can draw strength from them to keep going.”

“Having doesn’t make you happy: appreciating does.” Maybe not having what I wanted would force me to appreciate what I did have.

to know it’s always better to be an interesting girl than a hot one.

After all, life will hand each one of us our fair share of despair and loss and suffering—and then some. That’s certain.

But just as certain: It will also give us slices of chocolate cake, and sunny, seventy-two-degree days, and breezes that rustle the trees.

Here’s what I know now that those two don’t: There’s heartbreak to come, and sadness, and trouble. But no matter what, we’ll face every hard thing better together than we would apart. Every single one.