Like you, I’ve passed through many difficult moments in my life.  Right now I’m not living any of them.  Life is sweet and joyous, full of wondrous sights and grand conversations.

It’s so easy to forget the tough times.  And to realize that they’ve contributed to the person I am today.  Would I love people as much as I do if my earlier life was simply a series of smooth sailings?  I don’t think so.

Here are a few recollections:

1.  Maybe two months ago, my esophagus problems disappeared.  For probably a year previous, I had trouble swallowing, and I’d go to bed each night with a vague dread.  My doctor assured me that I wouldn’t die in my sleep because the body had a gag reflex … but I still wondered.

2.  Watching my wife Jody slowly die from lung cancer over the course of a year.  Being at her bedside, doing personal care, loving her.

3.  Failing at several jobs.  Being fired, laid off, or not making sales quotas: manager of volunteers at a hospital, life skills teacher at a college, personal development course teacher, life insurance agent, real estate agent, encyclopedia salesman.

4.  Coming close to death four or five times in the Rocky Mountains in my twenties: on a cliff; clinging to a steep snow slope above a cold lake; being struck by lightning; etcetera.

5.  For four years, having weekly swimming classes in the nude with other boys and being the only one who never learned to swim.  I spent my time alone in the shallow end while my classmates did laps.  I don’t remember ever receiving any instruction.

***

The story is a smile

Not “Woe is me”

On to the next adventure