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JOY to the world

Another Christmas/holiday/winter break come and (nearly) gone.

This year, my break started with the metro, a train, a plane, a bus, another plane, a car, and nearly 22 hours to get from door to door.

The three days I had before Christmas were filled with baking, decorating, and wrapping presents. I also managed to see friends from high school over those few days as well. The real celebrations kicked off on the 23rd with one side of the family; continued into Christmas Eve with the traditional lunch with my mom, and going to see the children's pageant; and concluded on Christmas day, which was filled with maple-glazed cinnamon rolls, a new camera, and dinner with the other side of the family. Not too shabby I'd say.

The family also went up north for a few days. My original intention was to enjoy the snow, and my only chance for what I consider to be a "real" winter this year, except Northern Michigan was hit with a thaw a couple of days before we arrived, and the only snow left was the mounds created by snow plows. It was a tad disappointing, but I still got the opportunity to play with my new camera during a walk on the beach. Here are some of my favorites (click to enlarge).

Sunset from the balcony

Waves crashing against a mini-pier


It was so windy on the beach, my mom went full eskimo




After the time up north, I drove over to Ann Arbor with my sister, so we could celebrate New Years with our respective friends. Even though I was there for less than 24 hours, it was so nice to visit, and see my crazy friends again. We got dinner at Frita Batidos (highly recommended for anyone who has the chance to go), and spent the rest of the night playing games, laughing our heads off, and taking ridiculous pictures.





That pretty much brings us up to speed on the events of the break, but I also wanted to talk about the book I've been reading over the past 2 weeks: The Book of Joy. This book is a collaboration between the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu, where they focus on, shocker, how to bring joy into your life. Of course, there are some slight ideological differences between these two religious powerhouses, but the similarities and sincerity are so great that I almost forgot these two men were raised with completely different faiths. Throughout the book, both the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Tutu highlight the importance of compassion and gratitude, citing these as two of their pillars of joy, and stress viewing others first and foremost as fellow human beings, instead of seeing status or labels. 

After such a tumultuous 2016, I highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a ray of hope for humanity, or just an example of a wonderful friendship. While I'm not really one for resolutions, I hope I will be able to carry what I have learned from this book, and add just a bit more joy to the world.

gif from bookofjoy.org

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