Lessons from Death Valley: Finding Light in Life's Valleys

Saving this memory and day like a message in a bottle to a future me. Right now I’m camping in Death Valley, blanketed beneath thousands of stars, listening to the Decembrists, and I’m toasty because I’m slightly sunburned from todays 6 hour canyon. My body aches from working hard the last few days, putting in the elevation and miles, and I’ve laughed so hard I echoed on the canyon walls. Life is good. Dear future self, when you’re sad again (and you will be because you’re human), seek out sunshine, sit with real friends until you laugh, and take the adventure even when you don’t feel like it. These are the ingredients that will bring you back from the deepest of valleys and thickest of lost moments in the forest of your life. Oh, and play the playlist, you know the one. Then, when you’re ready, choose happiness again. Because it is a choice. It’s always a choice.