The Incident of the Cheese Blizzard.

POOF! A cloud of white flew into the air, and the next thing I knew, I (and my entire kitchen) was covered in parmesan cheese. It was in my hair and my eyes, down my shirt, scattered throughout the open silverware drawer, and all over the floor. All I had attempted was to shake the container to get rid of those annoying clumps that form when you probably have left it in your fridge too long, but the top was obviously not sealed quite fully.

Once I realized that it was a random blizzard of cheese and not my apartment randomly combusting, I had this crazy split second where I didn't know how to react. I wanted to cry, because everything seems out of my control these days. I also wanted to be angry, because, well, seriously? Let's add cleaning out my cluttered silverware/random thing drawer to my ever-growing and never diminishing to-do list.

But instead, I just started laughing out loud. I had this vision of what I looked like in that moment: a frazzled, single twenty-six year old woman covered in Parmesan cheese (…and not even the good shredded kind) laughing alone in her apartment, and just kept laughing harder. I admit that I laughed until I had tears creating trails down my cheesy cheeks.

It's moments like those that I feel like I'm losing my mind. I mean, who just starts laughing when there are cheese particles in her hair? My life feels so chaotic and overwhelming right now: finishing grad school in three weeks, but with a to-do list a mile long, feelings about relationships and moving and people all over the board, no therapy job lined up for post-grad, blah blah blah. Most days I want to just hide in my bed all day and avoid the world.

But laughing is just so good for the soul.

Here's my favorite picture of my grandparents (my mother's parents). 

[Sidenote: check out that sweet red convertible in the background my gramma used to drive!] 

They experienced so much adversity as a couple, and I love that this picture captures a simple moment of joy. While Grandpa passed away when I was only in 5th grade, I'm so lucky to have Gramma and her smiles and wisdom still to this day. Gramma is the one of the best at choosing joy, no matter what's happening.

But the more I learn about people and the chaos, struggle, heartaches, and just the craziness of life, the more I believe that joy is a choice. Life happens. I fully believe there are times to cry and times to be angry, but I hope that we can all choose to laugh more than we allow those to take over.

Or that we can at least take a break from those emotions and find joy in something. anything. even if it's Parmesan cheese all over your kitchen floor.