Close your eyes: : http://locustsofegypt.bandcamp.com/track/close-your-eyes

I grew up thinking old age was people slowly fading away as their life became quieter and quieter.  My grandmother might have been the exception.  She started a new business very late in her life and perhaps I just don't know what was really going on in other people's lives.

My life seems to be growing more intense as I grow older.

It is not just that I am trying to cram as much as possible into what is left as much as the feelings that overwhelm me as I move through it all.  I wanted drama and emotion when I was eighteen.  Now I have it.

I met my best friend and soul mate in a winter spring relationship that has been one of the richest experiences anyone could ever imagine.  He brings out the best in me and offers me opportunities to do those things I always dreamed of but thought were lost.

Music floods my life as those I love write and sing the songs that melt my heart and bring tears to my eyes.

My love of reading and writing become dreams come true when I am able to assist someone whose writing turns into books read and valued by academia.

And I am able to give back in ways that are soul satisfyingly wonderful by working with young children in literacy programs nearby.

Each time I have had to give up something I thought I could not live without, another "something" has come along to carry me away on a wave of living that might appear to be contrived if it were a play -- except it isn't.  It is real.