Today I chose the music of Tom Petty to accompany my oft-procrastinated workout regimen. The song, Saving Grace, filled my house and my eyes filled with tears. Tom Petty is dead. He sang of going to the music store for a certain brand of guitar string. Reminded me of my own guitar-playing days I have seen grow more dim in the rearview mirror of my life. I chose to devote myself more to my writing, but grieve the sound of the guitar in my home, my fingers knowing where to move along the strings to make the right sounds at the right time. There is nothing like making music. So much fun.

I found a book on my shelf I forgot to add to my To Read list, On The Trail of William Wallace by David R. Ross. Wow! I've gotta read it! Having Scottish ancestry, on one of my grandmother's side, I thrilled at the dusty find. Then, I learned that David R. Ross died in 2010. Oh, how I cried some more! It was getting messy and disgusting, all the tears and sobbing! Why?

Places I lived where I moved away from. Friends I once had whom I see no more. Activities, jobs, houses, and so forth that I've said goodbye to can pile up in my rearview mirror. But, you know, if you are always looking in the rearview mirror at what you've left behind and your eyes grow blurry with so much crying, you are liable to crash on the road of life. You can't have it both ways, hang on to what's past and look forward to the possibilities ahead.

The best life has to offer is not in the past, though we may learn from it and draw wisdom from the deep pools of sorrow in a life lived fully and passionately. The best life has to offer is within us, all the wisdom, all the memory and vision and hope and dreaming that we can fill ourselves with and express in a life lived in beauty and grace. That is the ultimate challenge. A life of beauty and grace. Not regret. Acceptance.