"I am learning every day that happiness isn't always tied to needing a reason. That when the world or people ask you to give reasons for your happiness, you get to say you're happy simply because you are and without the need to prove why. But at the same time, let happiness be something you teach yourself to fight for. Let it be a life you work to believe in. Let it be the ordinary day. The simple moment. The little part in your minutes. Let it be as hopeful as believing you'll get back up when you fall. Let it be the safe harbor you swim for while facing the storm. And then never let it be something so easily defined by what it must be and what it should be. Because happiness undefined, is what it can be. What it can grow to be. To you, from you, and with you."

“Happiness is something that is gently built. It is what you make ritual within your life, what you allow yourself to get used to. You think of happiness as a constant forward motion, a kind of growing that looks a lot more like reaching — always toward some newer, brighter horizon. Yet, happiness is consistent effort in the same direction. It is the way you strengthen bonds, uncover beauty, and grow to become most comfortable with yourself. It is how you learn to trace the lines of your innermost desires outward into the world, to find within them the pockets where you most belong. It is to live in a way that makes you feel grateful you are here, that affirms how connected you are to something greater, that makes you remember you are working toward something that will one day add up to be more meaningful than all of its parts.”