“The trail is the thing, not the end of the trail.  Travel too fast and you miss all you are traveling for.” – Louis L’Amour, in Ride the Dark Trail

Like the happiness within it, life is a journey, not a destination.  If we speed through this without taking our moments, what have we done?  I know of no one who has reached the end of life and was joyous in its end.  I know of a few people who strove to make a difference in their lives and made each moment count.  At the end of their lives, I’ve known them to have wished only for more time for more that they might have done.  This is especially true with respect to the love that might have been given or received or shared and times that if only they had taken more time when they had it, they might have shown just how much all of this gift – life and the people we find in it – has meant to them.

Maybe I am assuming too much in what I’ve said above.  I really only know how it is for me.  My little girls had only been alive for a few years when I got hit by disease that grabbed me harder than most it afflicts.  The thing I most remember about lying there in ICU was the horror of thinking that I may never get to watch my little girls grow up even a little.  I was keenly aware of the discussions being held about how little oxygen I was getting.  But the largest awareness was the faces of my baby girls and how I could not, would not leave them if I had any chance at all.

I survived.  I have this second chance.  I’m going to make the most of this ride and enjoy as much as I can all the pleasures of trail and sharing it with two angels that mean more to me than life itself.   I don’t share this to hope for sympathy.  I share this to encourage all who read this to share your love with all around you while we have the chance.  Do those random and not so random acts of kindness and sensible beauty!!