Chapters...

"...will you still love me...I know you will..."

I met my great grandfather Vicente Ramirez in Puerto Rico when I was just a young boy.  You would only know he was old by his sagging sun drenched skin.  Underneath was a muscular physique and he had the handshake of a bear.  I asked my father how old he was and his reply was "I don't know...he doesn't know either".  Every morning he woke up to tend the fields only to return at midday at which time he would then tend to his loving wife and no, she didn't know how old she was either.  A few years later, he would finally pass on.  He stubbed his toe out in the fields and never tended to it.  Allowing gangrene to set in just below the knee.  They had no choice but to amputate a large portion of his leg and this now kept him immobile...a state that would bring about his death.  His age was of no consequence to him.  In his mind, he had a purpose.  He had things that needed doing and so long as he kept his mind on his purpose...that's all that mattered.  My great grandmother would pass just a little while after him.  I suppose loving him was her purpose in life...

Today I turned 40 and it means absolutely nothing.  It came and went like any other day.  People wonder why I look so young.  I can say genetics but that's only a small part of it.  I guess I just don't bother with age.  You want to know how old I really am?  Look into my eyes and you might just see decades.  I see many measure their existence in spurts of time but I see no real significance in seconds, minutes or hours.  I see significance in events and moments you will never forget.  Holding my sons for the first time.  The first time I prayed for the love of my life.  The first time I explored my true passions and my unending story of a soul seeking it's true worth.

Chapters begin and end with determination, smiles, the touch of love and the loss of the same.  I have many chapters written...and I have many more to write.  Never afford time the power to make or break a dream.  Never give in to the idea of "It's too late".  It's only ever too late when all effort has been exhausted....not because the clock says so.

I will live forever...until the day I die.  Even then, I shall live on...in you...

~Apollo