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I VALUE:

• The gift of family. Knowing that I belong someplace in the world, that someone out there loves me, and that I am never alone.
• The gift of love. Knowing that I will find love and that love will find me; believing that love is not perfect but that it is our best way to know God.
• The gift of laughter. Being able to laugh at situations, regardless of their gravity. Knowing that laughing instead of crying can be the one thing that changes the world; believing that when I laugh, I inspire laughter in others.
• The gift of self-worth. Knowing that I am no better nor worse than any other person in the world; believing that I am capable of being a great person, just as I am capable of being a failure, and that I have been blessed with that choice.
• The gift of spirit. Knowing that regardless of what happens in my life, people will come and go, but that I will always have my spiritual connection to God. Believing that I am a part of God and that God is a part of me.
• The gift of philosophy. Believing that I was put on the earth to wonder why I was put on the earth; knowing that I will never know, but that I must ask; challenging myself to become greater and to learn more.
• The gift of song. Knowing that music has incredible power to sooth, to stimulate, to inspire, to depress; believing that I have a song within me that belongs to me alone, and that it is mine to discover.
• The gift of color. Believing that we are able to distinguish color not as a tool of survival, a result of evolution, or a scientific phenomenon; but as a gift to create joy and make life more exciting.
• The gift of diversity. Knowing that each person is unique, each person has different gifts to give to the global community, and that everyone is a representation of God. Believing that all people deserve happiness, satisfaction, and a life worth living.
• The gift of community. Believing that even in the bleakest of times, there will always be good people who come together as a family of strangers, to accomplish a common goal or provide support for those in need, and that even strangers can affect our lives in immense ways as part of the global family that encompasses us all.
• The gift of sex. Being able to express love in a way that does not require language, having the ability to share with another person on an intimate level.
• The gift of taste. Like color, not as a result of evolution or a scientific phenomenon, but as a gift, a means to inspire joy. A way to express happiness, to share love, to put feelings into substance.
• The gift of language and communication. Knowing that I am able to share my thoughts with others, that others may share with me, and that we do not feel alone, because we are able to do so. Believing that communication, with love, is the key to overcoming oppression, unhappiness, war, poverty, and hunger.
• The gift of negative gifts. Because without the bad things in our lives, we have no joy, no happiness, no reason to live. Good cannot be experienced or described in the total absence of bad.
• The gift of life. Without it, nothing else matters.
• The gift of death. To remind us to hurry up and start living.