Changes

A generation that raised me has nearly passed. Yesterday we buried the woman who raised me, next to where my parents are buried, and one other family friend who also was like a second mother to me. These people devoted much of their lives to me, and now they are all gone.

This was a good time, but nothing is forever.

These chapters are ending during a transition time in my life. Closing doors on old relationships, at the same time new ones open. Children growing older. I myself am older. New opportunities are happening for me, for my loved ones. We've given up old homes for new ones...

Yes, I want to live every moment. There is fear... Fear is good, driving me, helping me to confront a life of unknowns, both good and bad. I have no control over the outcomes or the details. I make choices and blindly believe that everything will be all right in the end, no matter what is happening.

Can you see the wave I am riding? It's rising ever higher on the horizon. And yes, that's me riding the crest on my stomach. Do you see my face? Do you see me smiling, and closing my eyes when I can't look? My eyes do open again: I am doing this, and it's incredible. I am blessed. I am living. I am me and it is a gift.

Life will always change. No one and no thing is forever, except the force that keeps the sun rising and setting, the one that sparked the heart beat in my chest and ended it for Gigi, the woman we laid to rest. Until I know of something else, there is no greater power in my life, and I am grateful for everything, because it has been worthwhile, and it continues to be. I don't pass up the opportunities. I love life. Life is good.

I make a toast to life every day, drinking from my cup as I sit on my perch over the city of my birth, setting out to make sure that I follow the path that's being laid out for me. I'm tasked with accepting what comes my way, and to be alright, regardless. My only challenge is to remember and reinforce. For it's that momentum that carries me back to my bed at night, and if I am fortunate, I will awaken again to have another day.