The Chapters of Our Lives

We enter this world and the story begins The early chapters a distant and hazy memory As awareness grows we begin to capture memories Most of which being those that define us as an individual We learn from our loved ones and peers as our persona takes shape As we progress and more chapters are added "who we are" is firmly defined That person that we have become now interacts with others’ lives We love, we form prejudices, we project our likes and dislikes All of this is captured by time and forms a storyline by which we will be remembered Hopefully, these chapters will tell a story of compassion and caring Unfortunately, this is not always the case as some take another path If this be so, then the middle chapters will be filled with turmoil As always time moves on and the chapters of our lives continue Advancing age brings thoughtfulness resulting in either pride or regret That which we are, that person that we became many chapters ago now stares endlessly at a world moving too fast to comprehend To live the final chapters of our lives we must do so with the realization that past chapters now cast in stone cannot be rewritten Our book of life is of our own making and each chapter defines choices that we and we alone made based on factors that we faced. Yes, sometimes our choices were seemingly not of our own making but in the end we must take ownership of the story line for chapters to follow. As the final chapter of our life unfolds we either look inward and commend ourselves for doing the best that we could - with no regrets and/or, we look outward seeking the hopefully healing hand of our maker, or that “power" out there that we perceive might conclude our final chapter with a journey ending in restful peace throughout eternity.