Some time in early June of last year, I was browsing a school supply/trinket store in Changsha, China. I was amusing myself reading the covers of the notebooks, which were decorated with bizarre “chinglish” phrases. The grammar was terrible and most of them made no sense at all. However, hidden among the stacks I found bits of translated wisdom (note the title).  A few days later I left China. After an entire year of living there, it was strange and sad to think of saying goodbye.

Now we all find ourselves at the end of another cycle. Again these mixed feelings arise. By our mid-twenties most of us learn to embrace change and the adventure that comes with it. Still, it is hard to walk away from the people who shared your days and inspired you for so long.  Each person here is a master of delightful deeds, and is a beautiful member of this very funny species. The fate of our world may seem dim at times, but all of us at High Trails secretly know that we are surrounded by crafty geniuses. We may or may not be saving the planet, but we are most definitely doing it in style.

When I was reading notebook covers that rainy day one year ago, I came across this  paragraph. It shares a wisdom that many of you already understand. You have all inspired and uplifted me throughout the year, and I hope that this does the same for you.

“We spent a pleasantly lazy afternoon Joy in living can never be assumed as a pose, or put on from the outside as a mask. People who have this joy do not need to talk about it; they radiate it. They just live out their joy and let it splash its sunlight and glow into other lives as naturally as bird sings. We can never get it by working for it directly. It comes, like happiness, to those who are aiming at something higher. It is a byproduct of great, simple living. The joy of living comes from what we put into living, not from what we seek to get from it.”

You should remember that your energy, your laughter, your wisdom, and your presence bring more light to this world than you will ever know. So keep on keeping on, my brothers and sisters. Continue to live just to live, and show young and old alike that being is as  easy loving what you already are. And as another notebook so elegantly put, “Let me with the sun as a palette, draw on your transparent windows a heart brimming with blessings.”