There have been many unexpected visits and phone calls from friends who amaze me with their concern and awareness of my current journey. If all of life is a stage, I feel as though I am playing a leading role for some who are in my audience watching to see how this play unfolds and how I respond to my current challenges. Beyond that, it seems as though I am viewed as a pioneer of sorts; blazing a path that they one day they all will traverse as well.

Not feeling comfortable with this, I decided that this would be a great day to get away from just about everything. That being the case, I decided that this would be a dandy time to visit one of my favorite places to reflect which is Gravely Park.

This small park is just north of the Ronald Reagan National Airport and just beyond the Potomac River. In this park it seems as though you can almost touch the planes as they roar past in their final decent and off in the distance you can see the planes taking off. Journeys that both begin and end in the same place; the cycle of life.

On this fall day, the park is alive with an almost palpable energy. The trees have shed their dull colors of the summer and are now proudly adorned with the resplendent colors of the fall as their season comes to its conclusion gloriously. A breeze has them swaying in a quiet waltz as the water sparkles off in the distance joining in this exuberant dance.

In this display of beginnings and endings amid the symphony of the season it seems as though everything here is taking on its own unique calling. Birds sing and flowers bloom as they function true to their purpose. The planes ahead of me, like everything else that I am viewing, have their own purpose as well. They are created to soar, to fly, to roar above everything that seeks to keep them on the ground. In spite of the obstacles of weight, weather and so on, they daily face their challenges and soar.

Perhaps this is why I am surrounded by the many who observe me in much the same way that I am watching the planes taking off in front of me. I have an abundant number of reasons to remain on the ground but to do that would cause me to deny the very thing that is at the center of my healing; the spark of the divine within me that challenges me to abound amid my difficulties. That spark at times barely flickers and occasionally glows but for me it is a necessary light in this dark place. It is that light in this my night that guides my spirit beyond me, challenging me to soar. This is the message of my moment; that to follow the light within is to illuminate a path to successfully navigate this challenge.

Yes, life is hard and I am not inclined to just stoically endure this battle for that would reduce me to being little more than just a long suffering victim. My perspective however is profoundly different in that illness for me has unlocked levels of spiritual development that were inaccessible to me in any other context. By finally seeing that inner peace is found not through the body but rather beyond has turned all of life into a blank slate on which my spiritual journey is to be written. Before me now is the opportunity to embrace knowledge that heretofore was inaccessible to me and in so doing draft a script for others to follow.

Now it is good to watch planes before me lifting off and eventually becoming lost in the clouds as they fly away. That is their lasting legacy that they now leave for others to warm their spirits by.