Thoughts from my youth

Anyone who knows me well knows that I led a very charmed life in my early years. Though money was tight, my home was always filled with warmth and love. I had little experience with pain, struggle, or loss.

While looking through a poetry book given to me by a high school friend, I found a paper I wrote as an assignment in Analogy back in those tender, innocent years. Though I like to think my writing has improved over time, I found those words from my youth interesting and pretty much on target regarding how we live our lives. If you have the patience and inclination....read on!

A person's life is like a book. There are many people in the world today and every one of them is different, just as the books in our homes and libraries have a different title and story to tell.
Each new life has a beginning; a fresh start with a whole future ahead. You can't start life at age twenty, just as you can't start reading a book in its middle. You must begin on page one and go from there. There are many chapters in the book of life, each with something new and different to learn...and they all must be lived. Some will be happy and memorable and some will be sad and painful, but they are each a part of it for they help us grow. One cannot go back and rewrite or leave out a chapter, just as he cannot go back in time and change things that have happened.
A book is sure to be torn as long as it passes through the hands of readers, and though the tear can be fixed, it's not quite the same. This, too, is true in life. One is bound to get hurt while he is living, and though that pain can be patched, there will always be a scar. Nevertheless, one cannot throw his life aside and just stop living because of a hurtful experience. It would be as foolish as throwing away a book that has a tear on one page.
An author usually writes a book for his own pleasure, but he still wants others to read and enjoy it, too. How unhappy he would be if no one did! One's life is also meant to be shared. How badly we would feel if no one wanted to listen . A life has to be shared to get any joy from it, just as a book must be shared between an author and his readers.
As time goes on and life goes by, one ages and with age comes the signs that tell us we're not that young person anymore. Hair grays and the skin becomes wrinkled like the worn cover and yellowed pages of a book. But though the exterior may be aged and worn, the inside holds that special something that can never lose it meaning, nor every grow old.
Then comes a time in life when the pages left are few. The book that once had its beginning must now come to an end. Sometimes one may look back and feel that he has not put his all into his book of life. But if he looks back and sees a lifetime with pages filled with love and happiness, then he can close his book with contentment, knowing he has written well.

May your chapters be many...and the pages that you write..............be written well.