The Story So Far

Fingers, ancient and clumsy, turn the gilded pages of my life's story.  Some chapters are written so beautifully that tears pour from the corners of wrinkled eyes. Others make the pruned lips mouth "Who the hell edited THIS?"

Good and bad, our stories are written by our own hands. Our choices shape words, sentences, paragraphs, and eventually chapters.  Often, those chapters end unexpectedly, but as always, the story continues until no more ink runs from the pen and we close our eyes on the last page.  A recent status update from a friend pointed to an article about regrets. We all have them.  It's how we learn from the choices we made that led to those regrets that makes us better people. 

I've made more mistakes than some, less than others.  I have beautiful, flowery prose filling volumes of my life's story, and I have train wrecks that end those chapters.  I struggle to be better, I try as hard as I can to be more than I think I can be.  I make every effort to give back to the world as best I can.  Somewhere, in the cryptic lines that fill parts of my story so far, I see the markers, I note the places where I might have made different choices, and I accept that at every single fork, I took the road that led me here. 
And I do not regret the choices I made.  I regret that my choices sometimes hurt myself or those I love.  I regret that I could not give more, do more, or be more to those who needed it.   But I will keep trying to see the smiles, to bring sunshine. and to love, Love, LOVE! 

To you all, I offer my hand, my ear, my shoulder, my very being.  I am happy to have you along as characters in my own story, and I am honored and humbled to be a part of yours.

Thank you. 
I love you <3

"A hand held over a candle in angst-fuelled bravado
A carbon trail scores a moist stretched palm
Trapped in the indecision of another fine menu
And you sit there and ask me to tell you the story so far
This is the story so far"
                    -Fish
                    "Slainte Mhath"