I needed this quote this morning.   I got it from a friend on another website.

Life is too short to wake up with regrets. So love the people who treat you right. Forget about the ones who don't. Believe everything happens for a reason. If you get a second chance, grab it with both hands. If it changes your life, let it. Nobody said life would be easy. They just promised it would be worth it!

Happiness does not come from others, it does come from within, but sometimes we need people to help us feel valued enough to find the happiness within ourselves.   Sometimes in order to be happy, it takes courage to do something that is difficult.   True happiness comes after hurt and pain, and healing.   Happiness can be achieved.   It’s ok to need a friend to extend a hand to walk across the bridge of loneliness to the luscious hills of happiness and calm.

A friend sent this to me, and I wanted to share.

A Creed To Live By
Written by Melissa MacDougal

Don't undermine your worth by comparing yourself with others.

It is because we are different that each of us are special. Don't set your goals by what other people deem important. Only do what is best for you.

Don't take for granted the things closest to your heart. Cling to them as you would your life, for without them life is meaningless.

Don't let life slip through your fingers by living in the past or in the future. By living one day at a time you live all days of your life.

Don't give up when you still have something to give. Nothing is really over until the moment you stop trying.

Don't be afraid to admit that you are less than perfect. It is the fragile thread that binds us to each other.

Don't be afraid to encounter risks. It is by taking chances that we learn how to be brave.

Don't shut love out of your life by saying it is impossible. The fastest way to lose love is to hold to it tightly, and the best way to keep love is to give it wings.

Don't dismiss your dreams. To be without dreams is to be without hope, to be without hope is to be without purpose.

Don't run through life so fast that you forget not only where you have been, but also where you are going.

Life is not a race, but a journey to be savored each step of the way.

I spoke with a good friend this evening, we had not spoken in 15 years. I introduced her to awomanis.com.

She told me she likes reading other people's stories, but she didn't think anyone would want to read what she had to say. She says much of her stories would be too depressing.

I told her most of us have sad stories to tell.  Life can be crappy and full of tragedy.

Sad stories can have happy endings.

Sometimes the happy ending is being able  to tell our story.

What is your story to tell?

I am in a tunnel.   The walls around me are dark.  I can't turn around.   I can only go forward.  I have to move to the light at the end.  Some days I'm closer than others.  In the last year, I have had three different jobs.   With each job, the light appears bright.   Each time the job ended, the light grew dim.  The end of the tunnel seemed so far away.   Today, the light is dim.   Tomorrow, I hope for brightness.

I will get out of the tunnel because every tunnel has in, and thank God, an out.   My writing is a way towards the light at the end.   The economy has a way of making the light dim.    The prospect of a paying job seems so far away.    I am a mother, a daughter, and a friend, but those don't pay bills.   I have to find a way.   Some days are hard to focus.    The resume writing is overwhelming.   The letter of introduction is some times more than I can bear.  Why should someone hire me?   I am not any better than the next person.  I am just me, a weary traveler down the rode of life, stuck in a tunnel.