journeys...

I loved your post about Alice and I'm glad you sent her my way to so I could experience her blog.  This post and having read about Alice's situation makes me think about us as individuals and the roads we must travel.  This young girl with all her honesty and bravery really moved me, that at such a young age she can speak so openly about her dreams and honestly about her terminal disease and what that means to her.


One of my favorite musicians, Xavier Rudd, uses the same word over and over in his songs and when he speaks, a word I've come to embrace.  He uses the word "journey" for life, saying on my journey.  I've heard it said about my journey or your journey or someone else's journey.  When you think about it that truly is what life is.


I see things a lot clearer when I accept that my life is a journey.  The word itself seems to indicate not knowing what is ahead on the path.  That you can guess and try to direct yourself but that you don't know what is coming up on the way.  The word journey to me represents that you can expect to encounter hardships along the way, and see those as obstacles to be overcome.  It also, at least to me, allows for the fact that I am going to make mistakes along the way and have to move back on track.


When I first started blogging three years ago, I was very sad and angry.  It was right when I was trying to pick up the pieces of my life after my divorce.  It was when I was trying to understand who I was and trying to acclimate to raising two children alone.  One day someone made a comment on that blog that said essentially that my life was not so hard compared to other single mothers out there and I should quit whining.  I never published that comment and it hurt me dearly.  I know that there are people out there that are suffering more than I am, I know there are people suffering less and I know that there are people suffering differently.  My thought was you don't know me, how can you judge me.


Everyone is on their own journey, Alice, you, me, the woman who posted on my blog three years ago.  Our lives are full of great beauty and great travails.  I think that is what brought me into blogging in the first place, the ability to see and document my journey and to be able to reflect back on it.


I will keep up with Alice, she is a dear soul to have come to know, and I will look into the bone marrow registry here in the States.  I wish Alice a beautiful journey and you too my friend.


Everyone has hopes and dreams.  Everyone has ups and downs.  When you are lucky you find a few kindred spirits along the way.