The interesting thing about life is the lessons we learn from it.

We don't learn them all at once. We don't learn them in order. We don't ever finish learning them. We relearn them again and again when life thinks we've forgotten them.

The lessons I've learned have not been easy to swallow - they have been messy, sometimes far and few in between, sometimes too close to each other for me to catch my breath - painful, helpful, beautiful, horrible, inspiring, tragic, overwhelming in the best and worst ways.

Nonetheless, here they are.