I awakened today, not from any sleep, but from torpidity, a stifling lethargy that had left me feeling as though I have been wandering through a haze of thick fog. Seized by a sudden impulse, I went out into the night and waltzed beneath the stars, twirling about and laughing from sheer joy while the moon smiled on. My cat followed to watch, attentively sitting on a rock, until I scooped him up and danced with him, humming the Blue Danube while he purred along.

It was something I would have done before I was "grown up," and I've decided now that I never shall. I will always find the time to dance beneath the stars; I will rake a pile of leaves and jump into them; I will make snow angels; I will bathe my face in May Dew every spring. I will believe in the beauty of life.

I will believe in the beauty of life.