Life constantly teaches us new lessons...
Life never stops posing questions...
Life has a way of showing us
just how much we do not know
about ourselves and about how
we will react when we are tested...
Life gives us what we need, who we need,
to complete various activities -
sometimes in the form of memories, recollections,
and experiences that we have accumulated;
however, there comes a time in our life
when we must all step out of our comfort zone
and step into a reality that may
come to define the rest of our lives.

My life was completely and irrevocably
changed when my Dad died...
my life was thrown off course
from the moment that I realised
nothing was ever going to be the same again...
my heart, my soul, my world
was shattered beyond repair
from the moment that I felt as if
a shard of the mirror of self-reflection
became impaled within my mind...
my life was darkened from the instant
that I knew I was going to be scarred
by a pain that would never go away.

Every day, for as long as I can remember,
I have been taking the steps and walking
the path that I needed to walk
so that I may give as much as I could
to those who needed it...
every day, for as long as I have been on
my new life's mission,
I have marched like a soldier
and done what had to be done...
every day, and for all the days ahead,
I am keenly aware that the architect
of what lies over the horizon
will ask of me to be ready for whatever peak
towards which I may need to make an ascent...
every day, I wish that I could go back
and change something that has happened
armed with the gift of hindsight -
but, because no one can ever know
exactly what will happen until it happens,
all that any of us can do when asked,
and when given a choice to act,
is to do our very best as we keep going,
keep climbing,
and keep rising to the occasion.