Lauren & Brian used this as a reading at their wedding last year, and it’s stuck with me ever since.

Here’s to glorious, amazing mistakes in 2013.

I got back last night from spending the holiday weekend (after doing a Friday wedding) at my family’s beach house, with a group of friends both old and new, from many different walks of my life. I didn’t even realize how much I needed the break – both from work, and from how intense this summer has been personally – until I was driving home, my hair still smelling faintly of bonfire from the night before, sand mixing into the already-total dirtiness that is my car mid-wedding-season. This beach, more than anywhere else, has always been able to make me feel lighter, and it was especially noticeable this weekend, especially noticeable after the extreme heaviness of the last few weeks.

But despite how hard things have been at times recently, they have also really allowed me to appreciate how lucky I am, as hard things are wont to do. Lucky that I have a job that I truly adore, doing work that feels meaningful; that I have some of the most amazing, most incredible friends in the world, people who help lift me up when I cannot do it by myself; and that I have a family who is able to support each other as best as we know how through unbelievably awful things happening.

The quote referenced in the title and photo on this post is from a 2009 essay by Marget Gunther for the New York Times, and reads in full:

“It doesn’t seem fair that we can look back and connect the dots in life, and see what led from that to this, but we cannot look forward and anticipate in any way what constellation today’s dots will form in the vast space ahead of us. I guess it’s just best to assume that heaven is right here, right now, and let the stars fall where they may.”

I wrote it down three and a half years ago when I first saw it, and it came back into my head last night, driving across a bridge with the windows down. The space ahead is always vast, and, try as we might, we can’t line up the dots. So remember to feel lucky, and to always tell people that you love them.

(also, if I owe you an email, look for it in the next week, I’m finally getting caught up.)

Listen, smile, agree. And then do whatever the fuck you were gonna do anyway.

-Robert Downey Jr.

also: photographic proof why more men should rock the tie-less suit

“We need society, and we need solitude also, as we need summer and winter, day and night, exercise and rest.”

-Philip Gilbert Hamerton

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”

-Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

“Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity.”

-Gilda Radner

The sign above the door reads: “Do all the good that you can/to all the people you can/in every way you can/as long as you can”

yes.

image: Christina Richards, via L Bascom Gallery

And through all of it, this quote keeps running through the back of my mind – because, my friends, life really is about saying yes. And when you remember that, and you do it, and you have faith in yourself and in the people around you? That’s when things get pretty awesome.

“The thing is, I really like saying yes. I like new things, projects, plans, getting people together and doing something, trying something, even when it’s corny or stupid. I am not good at saying no. And I do not get along with people who say no. When you die, and it really could be this afternoon, under the same bus wheels I’ll stick my head if need be, you will not be happy about having said no. You will be kicking your ass about all the no’s you’ve said. No to that opportunity, or no to that trip to Nova Scotia or no to that night out, or no to that project or no to that person who wants to be naked with you but you worry about what your friends will say.

No is for wimps. No is for pussies. No is to live small and embittered, cherishing the opportunities you missed because they might have sent the wrong message.”

-Dave Eggers

So, here’s to yes, to spending time in the sunshine, and to happy holiday weekends everywhere!

This quote has been on my mind lately; I am finding that there is a lot about life to love right now. Hope that things are just as good for you, and that your weekend is full of things that make you happy.