Story of a Life

“I can see myself it's a golden sunrise

Young boy open up your eyes

It's supposed to be your day.

Now off you go horizon bound

And you won't stop until you've found

Your own kind of way.

And the wind will whip your tousled hair,

The sun, the rain, the sweet despair,

Great tales of love and strife.

And somewhere on your path to glory

You will write your story of a life.” (Harry Chapin)

It seems like this happens more and more these days as I received the call yesterday afternoon that one of my good friends and co-workers had died of a heart attack.  We worked on multiple projects together over the last three years and traveled around Alaska with the shared goal of building water treatment plants and clinics making life better for the communities and villages we worked in.

I know this last winter had taken a toll on him with his family but things were working it self out getting back to an even keel.  We talked Friday and now in another instant he is gone . . .

He had asked me the last two years to go moose hunting with him and his day and it seemed that it never worked out as I was busy or possibly did not feel like putting the effort in that goes with the hunt.  Either way it was my loss. 

Kelly was the typical Alaskan man who loved to hunt and fish always planning his vacation times to coincide with the different seasons and the bounty it provided.  He loved his family and I enjoyed our times together as we traveled to the villages.  The times spent weathered in waiting for a flight out gave us time to get to know each other and our backgrounds.  Those were some of the things I will hold on to in our friendship.

“Remember the Titans” movie had a line in it that seems to keep popping up as we are on this walk through our lives, “Sometimes Life’s hard . . . for no reason at all.”

We all have a “Story of a Life”, what’s yours?  What is mine, how does it play out in these uncertain times?

Ice