I Am

From the moment of our birth to the day of our death, each of us walks a unique path of joys and sorrows that shape the “I AM” we become.

I am a father. I am a husband. I am a son. I am a brother. I am a grandpa. I am an author. I am an artist. I am a painter. I am a historical interpreter. My parents were divorced when I was too young to remember their marriage. I grew up on a farm with a brother and a sister and an adopted father. I moved to a white, middle class suburb of Chicago, Illinois. I went to college, got married, bought a house and had children. I was divorced and remarried and divorced again before meeting the one person who fit my… I Am.

I have travelled to places like Kankakee, Illinois, Paris, France, Rome, Italy and Athens, Greece. I have lived among the corn and bean fields of the Midwest and explored the Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. I have walked the beaches of Mexico and climbed the Mayan Pyramids in the Yucatan. I have experienced winter blizzards of blinding snow and sub freezing temperatures in Martinton, Illinois and I have watched the early morning waves roll in and crash on the shore in Vero Beach, Florida.

I have joyously welcomed children and grandchildren into my family and I have said my sorrowful good-byes when aunts, uncles and my own parents have passed on. I have gone from being a young boy on my great grandma’s lap to a middle-aged man at his mother’s funeral. I have known wonderful friends and feared misguided bullies that have come into and then out of my life, each leaving a piece of who I have become.

I have been molded by my joys and sorrows, my fears and my triumphs. I have been tested in times of deep despair that made me stronger in the end. I have learned empathy and grace from those I have loved and who loved me. I have known glimpses of wisdom as well as moments of stupidity. I have witnessed terrible cruelty and acts of random kindness. In the moments of my deepest darkness and pain, I have asked why and received the answer...why not.

The “I Am” that I have become is the sum total of all that I have lived so far on my path in this life. Each experience, each person, each place becoming a piece of the mosaic of who I am… a work in progress. With a mind open to possibilities, I might one day believe that I make the pieces of my mosaic and place them where I will.

Food for THOUGHT…