....a few thoughts...

(circa 2002)

     These last two years have been especially difficult in personal matters, with my father dying of lung cancer, after a long bout with dementia, in April 2000; a former musical friend dying of breast cancer in April of 2001, another musical friend dying from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in June 2001, after donating half of his liver to his ailing niece (cystic fibrosis), a true gallant gesture; my mother dying with dementia/Parkinson's in July 2001, ; a brother-in-law dying from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in August 2001; and then, this past July, 2002, my brother, 49 years of age, in elevator (with mistaken DNR - do not resuscitate - order in place) after final treatment for brain-stem cancer (sarcoma) at Duke Hospital, just before he was scheduled to go home to recover....many lessons to learn and never forget!

The most important lesson of all?  That if we live in memories of yesterday or expectations of tomorrow, we fail to live today...carpe diem loosely translated these days to mean...SEIZE THE MOMENT!....The next important lesson?  In the end, the very end, only kindness matters. .....not how smart, or pretty or cute, how tall or handsome, how rich.. I know that I have a long way to go, but that is my destination...(A rather large Thank You!, Jewel, for putting those words in "Hands", a classic "new" song. It is heartening to know that young songwriters still do write songs of value and guidance, even at such a tender age.)
 

These pages are dedicated to the memory of those pictured, and to the good that they did while they were on this plane...not the weaknesses that they had, as do we all....let us celebrate the victories, the joy, the human trials and tribulations, not the times when we forget the greatness that truly is within us, each our own universe....but all a fraction of the whole...call it God, the Universal Power, whatever you will....as Thomas Jefferson was quoted, "Yours must be a fine religion, I can tell by the way you live your life!"  Let our lives be our teachings, our living sermons...and let us strive so that each and everyone of us not get lost in the trees, but see the forest of our humanity....
 

Let us help each other  realize that we are all a part of one another, here now in this temporal plane, where time and flesh often distorts the reality that is....and while we are here, our destiny is to move toward the light...and away from the dark, toward the truth and away from the lies (from truth comes good, from lies comes bad).