Maui – Monday, May 2nd, 2023

We had this vacation booked a long time ago.

It came at a time when we needed one.

Life is a gift of course.

To live a full life is a blessing and joy. All our lives are filled with wonder and grandeur. We just need to take the time to notice.

I have the soul of an artist, I suppose, and see beauty all around me, even in the darkest of times, like now.

I have no idea how we become who we are. It may be partially the soul we come into this world with and the totality of our circumstances and experiences. In any event we are very different from each other and similar at the same time. This can make for a rich and exciting life.

I came from a family which started out with little as most of us do. Few people land on this earth already wealthy.

My wife and I have worked very hard and smart to reach our “golden years” and to be able to eat the “good” dog food. We created a life for ourselves that is far beyond our humble desires.

It didn’t happen by accident but I understand that luck plays a large part in how our lives turn out.

All of our lives are filled with joy and sorrow. Sadly this is what life is about at the end of the day.

We all struggle with things that we find difficult along the way. We have our successes and our failures.

We leave our parents, if we are lucky, and brave enough to take the chance to start lives of our own. We marry, grow and mature and learn to fight back against the barriers that spring up in our path.

We are in a place now where going on vacation is laughable. Our entire life is a vacation. We worked very hard and for long hours just to pay our bills and find some happiness in our lives like everyone else. We have finally arrived here at our destination. Sadly, most of us must work before we can retire.

Now we have the time to enjoy what hard work and some luck has brought us.

Our son Ryan was born with some slight cognitive issues, so a large part of our life was making sure he would be well cared for when we were gone. Sadly he went before us. Now our plans must change for obvious reasons.

I often told him to try and notice the beautiful things around us as we worked together off and on over the years.

He listened. I often wondered why he seemed always to be short of cash. Now I know why. He was buying art. His condo looked like an art museum.

Ryan had a great life. He had many friends and worked for years in the super market industry. He seldom missed work and worked at night. Not an easy task when you are young and trying to have a social life along the way. But he managed and had many lifelong friends.

He would have had a great retirement.

Our life has had its ups and downs like everyone’s. Our sorrows are lessoned by the great memories we have of Ryan and the times we spent together.