Growing up, we were a strict “No Candles” household.

No candles in the kitchen. No candles in the living room. And certainly no candles in our bedrooms.

For some reason, my parents didn’t think the idea of us burning the place down was much fun.

As a teenager, I hated it – I was soooooo responsible. I, like, totally wouldn’t burn candles unattended, like, ever.

Mom didn’t buy it. {Smart woman.} Eventually I stopped asking and moved on to way cooler things like playing with circular saws and trash picking. {Yes, I was the epitome of cool.”}

This year, I turned 28 and was shocked at what I unwrapped from my parents.

A candle. For me to burn. In my house.

I may have turned 18 a decade ago but apparently I just became an adult.

My dad – who isn’t familiar with philosophy at all {I don’t have ANY of their stuff} – picked it out because my middle name is Grace and he liked what it said.

grace

philosophy: how you climb up the mountain is just as important as how you get down the mountain. and, so it is with life, which for many of us becomes one big gigantic test followed by one big gigantic lesson. in the end, it all comes down to one word. grace. it’s how you accept winning and losing, good luck and bad luck, the darkness and the light.

Here’s to accepting the darkness & the light, however it may come, in 2011.