Time Travel

I'll be honest.

The one good thing about having grown older - is that I've learn to appreciate new forms of music, eat different types of cuisines and not be afraid to try anything once, most things twice.

This twist in my childhood story that once seemed married to a staple diet of GNR and Madonna and nothing else matters - is nothing short of a divine intervention.

I would like to call this progress..but while we are still being honest - I'll admit quite frankly, that its just not possible to appreciate the many nuances of fine music, art, cuisine, literature, travel when you are 15 and untouched by life's many intricacies.

I guess thats the good thing about having had your heart broken once or twice. .that when you hear someone say "Just the way you are" .. you understand all at once how simple yet how complicated loving someone in that precise beautiful way is.

Or when you see Van Gogh's Self Potrait .. you can look beyond the pastels into brown eyes that speak volumes of a life's struggles and the passion that lurks within.

Like when you eat Dim Sum .. just knowing that it literally means "A piece of my soul" ...makes the experience that much more special in a humbling sort of way.

Or when you read Plato say "Star of my life..to the stars your face is turned" .. you can close your eyes and think back to that one moment when you felt like you too had the heavens gaze upon you with a thousand eyes like he said.

Or when you travel - as far as you've ever been from home .. and experience what Frodo felt when he left the shire ..and You can finally understand that there is comfort in the challenge and the unfamiliar and that if you look hard enough you will find bits of your home scattered all across the unknown

When I was much younger - I read that unless you weer cheese, aging was not something that

you would have to worry about.

So be it. And this year from my heart, I hope that as 2008 comes to a slow end, as the clock ticks and I find myself counting the years.......I continue to embrace the battles life has to offer, laugh recklessly, travel endlessly, love foolishly and between now and then find a way to make the years count too.