Oh, Denise--your post was so lovely and powerful, it gave me goose bumps!!!! You expressed it so beautifully. I so well know that vulnerability that comes on the heels of so much loss (through death) of loved ones, coupled with the inexorable march of time and advancing of years....I feel the same longing to be all that I can be and do all that I can do.

It truly becomes a matter of quality, not quantity, though....that important sense of living life not so much for one's own pleasure, but with a certain pitch and passion, giving something back.....

and I agree about the love for family and friends...after my parents died, and I was truly struck with how fragie this slender thread really is, the most important thing in my life became my small circle of family, friends-who-are-like-family, and beloved pets.

I feel the same way you do---always letting those people know how much I love them. You never know when the last words you say to someone will come. The night before my mother died, she called and we had a visit on the phone. But I was tired and irritable and didn't really put much heart into the conversation..she had gotten sometimes difficult during her last weeks, and I felt mildly irritated with her. The next morning, she died.

Knowing my mother (she was an Episcopal priest and very aware of the deeper things in life), she knew when she called me that she would be gone the next day....I wish I had been more loving. It was my last chance. Of course, we all have our moments of being grumpy, uncharitable, or outright mean, but after such moments, I always try to undo them.....because you never do know.

I can be a huge whiner about the silly, unimportant things that go wrong in my life, but I am humbled and grateful when I remember how blessed I am. Few people in this world get to do something as wonderful as going on a Radisson cruise. So I'm always mindful of how fortunate and blessed I am (in between periods of whining, LOL).

I think that you and I have TONS in common....we most definitely will have to try to coordinate a future cruise. Wish you were going to Tahiti!!!!!!! Warmly, Liz