Today, We Live

Today I woke up, the sun was shining through my window, the sky was blue, and even though it was cold outside, there was a warm feeling in the air.
Oh, do we know how blessed we are to live in such a world where we can witness theses things? Do we see the many small blessings that surround us?
This world that we live in is so beautiful, even on it's bad days. Yet, we go around ignoring it. We chose to put screens in front of our faces and wires in our ears as a way of coping with our lives. We think that if we block out the world enough that it will eventually disappear and leave us with the universe that we've created in our minds- our imaginary world. We cover the sounds of the world with music, and live our lives locked up in a room away from family. We chose to read about our friends' latest Facebook drama rather than picking up a book, and for what? We as a people have been desensitized by modern day technology, and maybe we don't mean to, but we are slowly drawing ourselves away from the beauties of the world.
With all these distraction, we miss so much.

And then, even without the distractions, we take it all for granite.

We take the little blessings and cast them aside as if they are nothing. We bring upon ourselves bad days, because we refuse to see what good has been placed in front of us. We look over the fact that today we are alive, that we are able to get out of bed and breathe. We look over the fact that we have the chance to do something with our lives, and maybe even make a difference.

Three years ago, I didn't understand this. In a way, I was the one that put myself into that hole. I couldn't look past the hitting, the yelling, the criticizing, and the rumors long enough to see the world. I bottled up all the emotions and eventually led myself to a costly decision.
The world that I had made myself live in wasn't real, it was the world of my own making. There would be times when I would lock myself in my room and not come out for days, all because I didn't want to face what was real. I thought I could cope better by myself.
The things I missed while hiding behind those walls were innumerable, and I don't want to miss a second more.
I'm storing away the earphones, and putting the phone on silent. I am going to live.

I thank you all for the parts you play in my life, I know that if it wasn't for you I wouldn't be who I am today.

Stay strong out there.