In March of last year I blogged about not realizing the logic of why things come into your life until they have left. To this day, I still find that to be true. However, what I love more than anything is finally realizing why those things have left; I love finding truth to my beliefs, and I love when those reasons sneak up on me. They provide me with those “Ah-ha!” moments which always seem to catch me off guard at the times when I unknowingly need them the most.

Tonight was one of those nights.

Sometimes you come across people in your life that you feel in your gut you’re just supposed to know. You have this innate feeling that your lives would mutually benefit from knowing one another. So you act on it. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t. Either way, I think it’s worth the “hey, how are ya?” initiation.

You may also come across people in your life that you know, but not as personally as others. Maybe you share the same group of friends or have been involved in the same activities but just have not spent time one-on-one. Until one day you really look at that person and think, “Hmm… I know about them, but I don’t really know them.”

I was fortunate enough that Canisius College, my home away from home, brought two individuals like those mentioned above into my life. These two relatively new, yet sentimentally substantial friendships make me feel so grateful for the people and things that have left my life.

One of the quirkiest quotes I have ever come across is from the book Eat Pray Love (which is still sitting half-read on my nightstand). It goes like this:

God never slams a door in your face without opening a box of Girl Scout cookies.

It’s underlined in black ink on page 22 of my personal copy. So often we come to find the silver lining of a horrible series of events in the most unexpected of places. Life can be so sarcastically deceptive in that way. But if you have a good sense of humor, you learn to roll with those punches and actually appreciate them.

If you can be open-minded enough to recognize those gut feelings you have and then be bold enough to take action when you deem those feelings worthy, I have no doubt in my mind that life will reward you with an “Ah-ha!” moment of your own. That moment may come in the form of a new friendship, a chance to act on a dream you may have been too scared to chase, or simply being able to able to look back on your past and realize it’s not a part of your present for a reason. That moment will come. Until then, move forward with an honest heart filled with nothing but good intentions. That in itself is worthy of a silver lining.