I have come to appreciate very deeply all of the wonderful gifts that are bestowed upon me on any given day. I think about writing an essay on the culture of celebrity and one hour later I find a review in Los Angeles magazine of the book "Starstruck". One night I was in bed, and for some strange reason was reminiscing about how much I used to love doing the daily crossword puzzles in the University of Georgia newspaper when I was in graduate school. When I went to open the book I was reading a pile of them – carefully cut out, saved and mailed to me by a friend – fell out of the back of the book. I forgot I had put them there. Another morning I am feeling blue about having to deal with mean people, and then I find a photo in the LA Times of a boy with a bald head, surrounded by two dozen other boys, also with bald heads, having just shaved all their hair off in support of him as he goes through chemotherapy. Just when I was desperate for a reminder of the kindness that exists in the world, there it is, right under my nose, over toast and tea on a Tuesday morning.

Yesterday a gift came to me in the form of an Abba song. The beginning of my week was a challenging one emotionally, and I knew that a sure way to get me in a happier space was to listen to Abba. When I was a little girl, my parents were friends with a couple that happened to be major Abba fans. This was when Abba was at its peak and at the top of their disco game. When these friends had dinner parties, I would always get to go upstairs and listen to their Abba records. I grew up with Abba. I danced with a hairbrush microphone in my favorite orange jumpsuit – which I thought was the coolest outfit EVER – and sang their songs, over and over again. I was a Dancing Queen – their song made me believe.

As I write this I find it hard to believe, but it was only yesterday that I finally downloaded Abba Gold from the Apple Music Store. I still knew every word to every song, and just as I knew it would, it transported me to a happy place. Once again, I was the Dancing Queen – young and free and only 17 (give or take). I did, indeed, feel the beat of the tamborine (oh yeah.)

But the real gift was in one song in particular, which I remembered when I heard it but had forgotten about it until it came on. And the gift was in the lyrics, and as silly and corny as it sounds, the lyrics gave me hope.

I Have a Dream
I have a dream, a song to sing
To help me cope with anything
If you see the wonder of a fairy tale
You can take the future even if you fail
I believe in angels
Something good in everything I see
I believe in angels
When I know the time is right for me
I’ll cross the stream – I have a dream

I have a dream, a fantasy
To help me through reality
And my destination makes it worth the while
Pushing through the darkness still another mile
I believe in angels
Something good in everything I see
I believe in angels
When I know the time is right for me
I’ll cross the stream – I have a dream
I’ll cross the stream – I have a dream

I have a dream, a song to sing
To help me cope with anything
If you see the wonder of a fairy tale
You can take the future even if you fail
I believe in angels
Something good in everything I see
I believe in angels
When I know the time is right for me
I’ll cross the stream – I have a dream
I’ll cross the stream – I have a dream

Something good in everything I see. To believe in this is sometimes a challenge, and other times it is impossible not to notice, and not to be overwhelmed by the beauty of it. May we all believe in angels, and may we all dance, jive, and have the time of our lives, however we can, every single day.