Your Life, Your Story

There are days in our lives when it feels as if nothing is ever going to work out.  Sometimes, those days stretch into weeks or even months and the feeling becomes inescapable.  It seems as though there is no way out of the darkness that threatens to consume you, to overwhelm you, and to take you down to the bottom of the abyss from which there is no return.  When these times come upon us, and they surely will, just as the sun rises and sets each day, it is easy to despair, to blame ill-luck and bad fortune for all that has befallen you.  How is it then, that you can deal with the bleakness of these situations, how can you keep your head above the waters that threaten to engulf you?

The other day a thought occurred to me.  What if you were to imagine your life story as a novel that had already been written?  A stranger wanders over to a table in a cafe and picks up your book.  They leaf through the pages idly, stopping randomly at a certain point.  That point is now.  At this one point in the story, they know nothing of your past and nothing of your future.  All that they will know of your story is from the letters that they read, those words, lines and paragraphs that describe all that is happening right now.  The stranger in the cafe begins to read.  What will they find?  Who is the main character of your story? What type of story will they believe that they are reading - action, thriller, horror, adventure, romance, or tragedy?

This is exactly what is happening now, when you look at your own situation.  You are reading the chapter that concerns all that is occurring in the present moment.  Unlike the mysterious reader in the cafe, you already know the past, you understand perfectly all of those things, those actions, the decisions, those strange quirks and twists of fate, that brought you to where you are now and that made you into the person that you have become.  Only, just like our reader, you also do not know how the story is going to unfold, you can not know what the future holds in store for you.  If you could, would you even want to flick to the end, to read those last few lines, to discover how your story ends?

Life is like this.  You are here and it is now.  Ahead of you lies many more sentences that you must write.  How your story will unfold is not yet defined.  You hold the pen poised above the paper. The shapes that it makes are your own to make, those shapes create the letters that form the story.  There will be influences and occurrences that are out of your control, but all of these will be necessary to help you, to move the story forward.  Like now, as I write, thoughts come unbidden to my mind, that influence the direction of my writing.  So too will it be with your life, with the events that are yet to come.  You will subtly, subconsciously alter the fabric of the story, bend it to your will, to try to make it flow the way that you wish.  I know this to be true because it is exactly what I have done. I created my own situation through subconscious thought, through positioning myself so that I was more able to take the opportunities that came my way.  I was not aware of it until after, but when I looked back, it was obvious that that is what I had been doing.  I could not alter the events ahead of me, but I could ensure that I was in the best possible situation to take advantage of what came my way.  And in so doing, to reach out for my dreams.  Those events would have come to me, come at me, and perhaps I would not have been able to react in the same way.  I see this as the definition of fortune.  Fortune is the ability to see and to grasp opportunity.  No one, and I mean this truly, no one is born unlucky, no one sits with a dark cloud above their head.  That cloud is of your own making, the way that you view life.  And if you were the creator, so too can you be the destroyer.  You hold the key and you hold the power over it.  The choice is yours and yours alone.

I thought the other day about a very dark chapter in my own life, a time when I was utterly lost, when I could not see any way out of the black that had consumed me.  I was in despair.  Everything that I had cherished and loved was taken from me.  I didn't see it coming and it left me in a state of shock.  In this moment of my life, I thought I was cursed, I believed more than ever that nothing ever worked out for me, that I was unlucky, that there was little point in continuing.  Every night I went to bed, I did not want to wake up because I knew that when I did, the reality of my situation would dawn on my all over again, and it would take me down further.  Had I been in a cafe and picked up my own life story and begun reading at this point, I would have wondered how such a thing could have happened, why someone with a good heart, who always tried so hard for others, could have befallen such a disaster.  And probably, because I'm a sucker for an underdog story, I would want the foolish boy who believed so much in the promise of love, to succeed, to find his way out and to have a happy ending.  I needed that dark chapter of my life, as much as I need the light.  That particular chapter was necessary to bring me to here and to now.  All of these years later, my life has turned into a voyage of discovery and adventure.  I'm still looking for that happiness that can only be found in love, but as surely as eggs are eggs, I don't want my ending to come just yet.  I still have so much to do, so much more to write and so many stories to tell my children.   

And so do you.  There are pages upon pages of blank whiteness ahead of you.  What is behind is gone.  It is done.  Now, here you stand.  At your feet lie a shield and a sword, all around you are the sounds and sights of the raging battle that is life.  It is your decision on whether you fight for the life that you want, whether you raise your shield to ward off the blows that will surely come, whether your swing your sword to strike down your enemies that will try to stop you.  Write you own story.  Don't get caught up in the past, don't think about now.  Instead, look to your future, decide what it is that you want, picture where you wish to go, and then fight for it.  Each strike of the enemy parried by your shield forms a letter, each swing of the sword creates the sentence.  Your story, your book, your ending.  You are not defined by who you are now, you are defined by who you will become and the writing of that story is in your own hands.  So, go write it.

_________________________

The Fight of Fear and Hope

"We have lost."

It was a bitter statement to hear.  Worse, there was truth in those words.  No matter how Jaeke looked upon their predicament, he knew that he would need a miracle if he was to safe this day.  This day.  Everything had led them to this one single day, when all would be decided.  Not even a day would decide.  Jaeke knew that in the battle, it was a single moment that decided it.  A moment when time itself seized to exist and a lightning fast decision was needed.  No, not a decision.  An instinct.  Everything in the battle happened by instinct, everything happened as the heart willed it.  The head knew the forms to make, it instructed the arms to move this way and that, the legs to move forward and back.  But it was the heart that led the dance.  Every true soldier knew that.  Surrender yourself to your heart and walk forward into the battle.

Now the battle was lost.  This battle, the battle that marked the climax of all things.  Jaeke had never meant for it to happen in this way, but some how, everything had conspired to make it so.  Life was like that it seemed.  You could try to keep it at bay, try to push it back, to take one thing at a time, but when life decided, everything came at once.  The dam was broken, the waters rushed and surged forth, the torrent that changed all things, and nothing could stand in its wake.

Jaeke looked up at Daughtry.  He was a good man, a strong man.  Both of them had fought together in this fight as brothers.  In truth, they were brothers.  They had shared drink, food, women and blood.  They had shared the fight.  They had watched friends fall by the wayside.  They had shared pain and doubt.  Didn't that make them brothers?  Didn't that make them more than brothers?  Perhaps we do not share the same mother and father, but I would die for that man, thought Jaeke as he saw the tiredness that was etched around the eyes of his friend.  Would this really be the end?  Right here, in this godforsaken hell in which they had found themselves.

Jaeke stood up and placed an arm around his old companion.  He wanted to reassure him, to give him some of his own strength, well, what little of his own strength remained.  He would spare some for this man.  Share one last thing with him at least.  Jaeke looked about him.  He saw the darkness of the ever oppressive clouds, those clouds that pushed down on a man, as if they willed him into submission.  He saw blackened skies, as the dark tendrils of smoke that rose up from the fires of the battlefield fed the bleakness above.  He saw fallen soldiers, mutilated bodies of men, of dogs, and of horses all alike.  He saw a barren, lifeless, scorched earth, that had once been full of trees that reached for the skies, endless fields of grass, and flowers that had bloomed in the springtime warmth and sun.  How long ago was that now?  Yes, he decided, it was all lost.  And worse, he felt the whisper of despair, "We have lost."  His hand, with fingers wrapped around the hilt of his blade, wanted to loosen its grip, to drop his sword, to give up the fight.  There was nothing that could be done now.  There was only darkness, there was only the deep abyss.  It would be so easy to step into the nothingness and end all of the suffering.

Jaeke looked across the battle field one last time.  The sight of it threatened to overwhelm him in grief.  He raised his eyes to the skies, he wanted to shout "Why?" and then it happened.  For a brief moment, the darkness parted, the smoke rolled back, the clouds split and there, in that tiny gap, there was light.  And what a glorious light it was!  In the beat of a heart, it was gone.  But it had been enough.  Jaeke now knew the answer.

"Daughtry, my old friend.  We have not lost.  There is and there always will be hope.  And to that we must cling.  The light will always exist, and if the light exists, then so too does love, because love is the light and the light is love.  If you can still draw a breath, then there is hope my friend!  This may be our final moment together, we may never leave this field, but I'll tell you this: we shall go out fighting like we have never fought before and we shall make fear pay a heavy price for denying us our dreams!"

Together, they rejoined the battle.  Together, they raised their swords and that day, they slew down the enemy.  In a time that would come later, a song would be sung for the heroes of this battle.  But it was not this day.  This was the day, when the light of hope vanquished the darkness of fear.  And so it has been ever since.

_________________________

A Time For Faith

Some days, I question the path.  I ask myself whether I have made the right decisions, whether taking other roads would have led me to the happiness and contentment that I seek, where I would have found lasting love and family life?  I ask myself whether I have made mistakes in the decisions that I took, and I wonder if following my heart has been the right path for me?  What if I have got this all wrong?  What if those things in which I believe are actually not right, that some how I have created an illusion in my own mind and convinced myself of the truth of it?  What if the life that I am leading is in fact, a lie, and that I have fooled myself and others into believing that this is the truth?

These are the days when my faith is tested.  I did not decide to live my life the way that I do.  I was compelled to do so, not by any person, but by my heart.  The way of the heart has been my life for as long as I can remember, only there was a time when I did not understand that my heart was the ruler of my life, and that I could not resist its calling.  Every important and life altering decision I have ever taken, has been made by my heart.  Even though I have a logical brain, I understand that some things must defy logic.  That is the beauty and the miracle of life. That is the mystery.  It was not until I read and connected with The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, that I came to understand the way in which I lived out my life.  As I read the book, every thing that was written made perfect sense and resonated within my soul.  Through the writing of Paulo, was I able to see and comprehend the way in which I lived my life, as well as coming to the understanding that I could no longer hold back what was in my heart.  It was and always will be unalterable.  It will never change.  It cannot ever change.  I am my heart and my heart is me, we are one and my heart needed to be set free.

However, there come days and moments when everything appears to be wrong. I feel a sense of loss, unhappiness and frustration.  I can no longer see where the path is leading me and I am no longer able to understand why I am leading this life, doing what I do, living where I am, being who I am.  I experience a deep rooted feeling of sadness and despair that I have not yet experienced what it means to be a husband and a father and I question whether that is ever going to happen for me.  I become unable to see any clear way forward, everything becomes dark, as if a light has gone out, the flame of my passion extinguished, and with it, my ability to continue to walk my path.

In these moments, I think negative thoughts.  I question the point in all of this.  I begin to sink, down into the dark abyss of hopelessness, of the futility of continuing on in life.  If I strive to make my life the one that I want but never achieve my ultimate dream, then why should I persevere?  Wouldn't it be better to just give it all up, to go quietly away?  After all, my parents, brother and sister and old friends back in England have gotten used to my being away, it's been so many years already that I have chosen to live my life overseas.  I would hardly be missed, I am sure.  Yes, that must be the answer.  One day, they will wonder why they have not heard from me, and perhaps they will wonder why it has been longer than usual?  But then, perhaps, they won't.  My books, my blog, my writing, my poetry will be the legacy that I leave to this world.  Little known, waiting to be discovered, like so many other budding authors, poets, artists, musicians.  Maybe then, my family will read all that I have written and finally understand who I really was?  Why I had to be away, what I believe in, what I stand for, and what so many other people are able to see - my soul?  These moments are dark, these moments are bleak.  Everything seems lost to me. 

Then there comes a moment when I gain an understanding once more.  I see the setting sun on the beach over the ocean.  I see the beautiful face of a woman, as she smiles at me and I feel a leap in my heart and know that one day, I will be a husband.  I hear the laughter of children, as they play on the sand and I know that my job is not yet done, that fatherhood is still mine to grasp.  I see horses running free in a field of green, with a newly risen morning sun cresting the hills that provide a backdrop to this scene.  I witness the wonders of the aquatic world that continues to fill me with such peace, tranquility, wonder and awe.  My soul feels replenished and my heart shakes free of the dark shackles that threatened to bind it and imprison it forever.  My heart will never be a prisoner, it yearns to be free and freedom is what I will always strive to give to it.

Faith.  Faith is what we all must have if we are to make good on the promises we made to ourselves.  Faith is what we must maintain if we are to remain true to our hearts.  Yes, the dark days will come.  Sometimes, those days will turn into weeks and even months.  But do not fear, for those days will always pass, just as long as you keep faith as your ally, just as long as you keep faith as your weapon, because faith will always defeat doubt.  It is faith that will guide you back to the path, that will reveal your dreams to you once more, that will shine the light for you, when you are no longer able to shine the light for yourself.  Without faith, then we will become lost.  Faith will always guide you back home, because faith knows that home is where your heart is.

I will never give up my fight.  I know that in order to achieve those things that I truly want in life, I have to work hard, I have to understand all of the lessons that have been shown to me, I must read the signs that are placed before my eyes and I must continue to heed the calling of my heart.  But this is not all.  I could do all of these things and still go nowhere, still remain static, in a world of unchanging scenery.  In order to move on and get closer to my dreams, I must take a step forward.  With the sword of faith at my side, I will take that step and when I do, everything will change.  The light will shine forth from my heart to show me the way, to guide me.

Sometimes life tests our resolve.  If you truly want to achieve your dreams, and if those dreams are your one true path, then you will push through the darkness and you will reach the light that awaits you on the other side.  When you do, you will become stronger, more sure of your path, and more able to deal with the challenges that lie in wait.  Nothing that we truly wish to achieve in life will ever come easily.  Do not be fooled into thinking that it will.  Keep the faith and the rewards will be yours in return.  It has always been that way and it will always continue to be that way, until the ending of time itself.

_________________________

Facing The Fear, The Doubt And The Darkness

In life, there will always come moments of fear, of doubt and when the darkness must be faced.  To progress on the journey of life and to continue to evolve the spirit that lies within each of us, it is necessary to face the fear and the doubt, and the darkness that lies beyond, and it is necessary to overcome them.  If fear is never confronted, if doubts are never dispelled, and if through the darkness, the light never comes, then it is not possible to progress on the spiritual journey.  That journey along the path will cease and the evolution of the spirit will falter.  Do not be fooled into thinking that the path will vanish, for that same path will continue to exist, only the scenery will remain forever the same.  Those same trees that surround the place that has been reached, will continue to stand tall and firm, those same trees will be seen day, after day, after day.  But unlike the person that falters in the face of fear and doubt, the trees will continue to grow, since they have their own destiny and follow their own one true path, and because they show no fear in reaching for the sun.  There can be no growth in the heart and the soul of the person who stands still on their path.  To find the light, it is necessary to pass through the darkness.  There is no growth for those that do not overcome their fears and doubts.  For that person, only a life of fear, regret and spiritual stagnation awaits.

There will always be moments in life, when fear comes upon us.  It can strike at any time and it will often strike without warning.  One moment, it is possible to feel emboldened, ready to take on the world and yet in the next breath, cowardice strikes and with it, the urge to run away and hide from that which awaits.  Fear comes in many guises and it is often impossible to recognise it before it has its arms tightly wrapped around you, as it clutches you in its stifling embrace.  Make no mistake, fear can take the very breath from you.  Fear can make it so hard to breath that you feel you are going to faint,  and indeed, some people do.  Fear can stop all rational thought, making it impossible to think clearly, to make the correct judgements, and to take the necessary actions.  Fear feeds on itself.  It takes only a single, seemingly insignificant moment to plant the seed of fear in the mind, but as soon as that seed is planted, it will immediately take hold.  Shoots will spring forth, gripping ever more tightly, and the seed of fear, that small thing, has quickly grown into an out of control monster that cripples, that drains all strength and courage, and that prevents movement.

Fear lives in the head.  Courage resides in the heart.  The two are age old adversaries that have made battle since the first sentient beings took their first breaths on this planet.  The courage of the heart has no equal, it can vanquish the fear of the mind, but only if it is released and allowed to reach its full potential.  There is no amount of fear that courage cannot defeat.  If fear feeds on fear, then on what does courage feed?  It's my belief that courage has no need to feed, since courage is found in the heart.  I think of courage as a bottomless well, an endless abyss from which a never ending source of courage can be drawn.  Fear will always attempt to block the route to courage.  Fear will try to stifle the heart.  It will take its hands and attempt to strangle the very life out of it.  Fear must stop courage at all costs for it knows that if courage takes hold, fear is utterly lost.  This is the purpose of fear in life and this is the path on which fear walks.  There is only one thing that fear itself fears.  And that one thing is courage.

Passing through fear is a necessary step, if the journey of life and the spiritual evolution of the soul are to be continued.  If the step is not taken and fear is not confronted and defeated, then the particular lesson that life is attempting to teach will not be learned.  If the lesson is not learned, there will be a part of the journey that will never be experienced.  This part of the journey will forever remain a mystery and the fear associated with this experience will stay forever in the mind.  They will become inseparable.  Each time the same situation is encountered, that same fear will rise and plague the mind.  Paralysis will occur again and again, until such a time that the fear is finally overcome and vanquished.

The best way to illustrate this, is by providing an example of fear from my own life and to illustrate how, because I did not defeat my fear in the very beginning, that same fear has affected me time and again, and has been a continual bane in my life.  It happened when I was eleven years old.  Back then, I had a good group of friends that I spent time with after school and on weekends, I was focused and motivated at school, and I enjoyed my life very much.  From everything that I can remember about this period of my life, nothing daunted me.  But one Friday evening, everything changed.  My friends and I attended a local disco for under fourteen year olds, held at the local sports centre.  It was our first foray into the world of music, dancing and girls.  At first, everything was great.  We danced together as a group, we made silly jokes with one another and we made up silly dances to make each other laugh.  We were excited and excitable.  At some point, one of my friends noticed some of the girls from our school that shared the sames classes as us.  We started to talk about dancing with them.  One of them, who I'll call Natalie Jones, had been the object of my infatuation for a long time.  She was at the time, the most beautiful girl I had ever seen - pretty, slim, long golden blonde hair that fell off her shoulders and hung down her back and she took ballet classes.  At the age of eleven, if someone had asked me to define perfection, I would have replied without hesitation, "Natalie Jones".  And now, there she stood, just across the room, on the other side of the dance floor.  All I had to do, was to walk over and ask her for a dance.  One of the most simple things in life and yet, for me, at that moment, an impossible mountain to climb.  I could not do it.  I could not find the words in my mind to talk with her.  I didn't have a clue what I would say.  Fear seized me and held me in its vice like grip.  I had this one moment to shake it off, to reach down and seize my courage and to act, but I faltered and I was lost.  Instead of my first foray into the heady delights of dancing with girls, I feigned a sickness, left and went home.  I was defeated utterly by my fear.

And because of what happened at that disco, at the age of eleven, unable to confront and defeat my fear, that same thing has happened to me over and over again throughout my life.  Even now, if I am at a bar or club and I see an attractive girl, I become paralysed by fear and unable to do anything about it.  That same fear that caught me all those years ago, will not let go of me.  It continues to hold me.  There have been a few occasions when I have beaten it, but those few times I was heavily laden under the influence of alcohol or some other mind-altering substance.  This is my Achilles' heel.  This is the personal battle of my life.  Something so simple for so many has become the most daunting thing that I can ever face.  And all because I was unable to confront and defeat my fear when it first occurred, all of those years ago.

One person's fear cannot be compared with another.  What is feared is personal.  What is feared was conjured in the mind by a unique set of circumstances.  Why do some people fear heights and others not?  Why do some people jump out of airplanes and others quiver at the very thought?  In my life I have scuba dived with tiger sharks, bull sharks, great white sharks and many others; I have thrown myself off of a bridge attached to a bungee cord; I have given a talk to a room of eight hundred people; I have lived alone overseas in a country where I knew no one and could not speak the language; I took myself to the other side of the world to attend university; I looked upon my mother as she lay in her hospital bed, so frail and so weak, and it was difficult to recognise the woman that she had once been, before the cancer took hold of her body; I quit my career, sold up everything and completely changed my life; and I reveal deeply personal thoughts in my writing, in the hope that it may inspire others.  In all these things, I have felt fear and I have overcome that fear.  But what are my own fears, compared to those of someone facing a life-threatening illness?  They pale into insignificance.  Our fears are our own.  They are our own personal battles.  Perhaps the greatest battles that we ever face in life.  And as such, they are ours to overcome and they are ours to defeat.

The worst kind of fear is fear of the unknown.  If the object of our fear cannot be visualised, then how are we able to fight it?  We do not know what it is that we are fighting against, so we cannot choose the most suitable weapon and if we cannot see our enemy, then we do not know when or where to strike at it.  The most frightening horror movies are always those where the protagonist remains unseen, allowing the audience to build an image for themselves, to build the fear of the unknown.  Fear of the unknown is a primary reason that so many people do not discover their one true path in life.  Even if a person knows and understands what gives them passion in life, it is fear that prevents them from reaching out and taking it.  It is the not knowing what lies beyond today, it is the moving away from all that you know, from all that is comfortable and that gives security, that creates a fear so deep, that it seems that it cannot be overcome.  But it can.  Fear can always be defeated, even the unknown can be defeated.  The sword of courage is yours to wield.

Fear has a friend and an ally.  That friend is called doubt.  The two walk hand in hand.  Fear creates doubt.  Doubt leads to fear.  Fear leads to doubt.  Doubt creates fear.  The two are inseparable, creating a never ending cycle that constantly feeds upon itself.  There is only one way to break that cycle: by eliminating the fear and taking a step forward along the path.  By passing through the fear, the doubt is immediately dispelled.  One cannot live without the other.  Strike one and the other will fall.  When you strike, strike hard and deliver a fatal blow.  If not, the foes will quickly rise again, only this time, they will be stronger and better prepared.

In many ways, doubt is worse than fear, since doubt creeps up insipidly and unnoticed.  It begins to grow slowly, imperceptibly, gradually altering the way in which you view or think of a situation.  When doubt has grown large enough, it reaches out to its friend, fear.  It is at this point, that they begin to lead you away from the path, to prevent you from taking the next step.  Fear and doubt will work hard to prevent your spiritual evolution.  Often, they will make you think that what you dream of, the what lies in your heart, that what gives you passion and purpose in life, is foolish.  They will convince you that it is better to stay where you are, to not risk all that you have gained on the throw of the dice called love.  It is they who will tell you that you are not deserving of such a life, that only the special, the chosen few, the lucky, are worthy of such gifts from the universe.  They are wrong.  There are no words that can be written that can prove this.  No amount of reading words on a page can create that belief within the soul.  The words can inspire, they can excite, they can embolden, but the only way to know for sure is to find the courage from within and to defeat those demons we call fear and doubt.

When the unknown fear is faced, what lies beyond is a void of infinite darkness.  There is no way to see through or around it.  It is like trying to see to the other side of the universe, like trying to see around a mountain.  It is impossible.  But it is not necessary to see through the darkness.  That which is unknown is the treasure waiting to be discovered.  Where would the excitement and surprise of life be, if every answer was known, if it was possible to see every outcome and eventuality?  The darkness is actually a friend.  The darkness needs to be embraced.  If all of the answers were already known, if the direction, route and destination of the path were visible, what then?  Life would become extremely boring and the very thing that gives life its meaning would be lost.  I do not want to read the script of my life, I want to write that script!  I am the author, I am the lead actor and I am the director.  This is the play of my life and it will be the play that I want it to be!  Courage will shine a light through the darkness.  Courage will show the way.  No amount of darkness can stand before the light of courage.  Just as the sun rises to dispel the dark of the night, so to does courage dispel the darkness of the unknown.  With each step taken along the path, the darkness is broken, with each step, the light begins to grow, because with each step, it is you who transforms that darkness into the light.  That power lies inside each and every one of us.

What I find interesting is that when an infant is first born, it knows no sense of fear, because there is no sense of fear.  There is nothing that can stop it, nothing that can hold it back.  Everything is unknown and into that unknown the infant ventures without hesitation.  When an infant first tries to walk, it inevitably falls.  It understands that falling is a necessary part of the learning process.  It knows no fear and so it gets up and it tries again, and again, until it one day it has learned to walk.  Then, at some point, it develops its conscious self and in that moment, it also develops its sense of fear.  So, fear is a learned behaviour and as such, it needs to be unlearned if we are to truly become all that of which we are capable.  And of what you are capable, there is no limit.

Never let fear hold you back from becoming your true self.  Never let doubt cloud your mind.  Never look into the darkness and fail to see the light that shines there as a beacon to guide you on your journey.   You have the courage.  Do not doubt that.  If you know where to look, you can find it.  And when you find the courage, take a breath, take another step, and walk on.  Glory and love await those that walk their one true path.

There is one last thing I want to write on the subject of fear.  My grandfather served as a captain in the army during World War II and was involved in the landings at Normandy.  I recently managed to obtain copies of the memoirs he had written on various aspects of his life.  One of these memoirs dealt with his time in the army and of that fateful day of June 6th, 1944, the day that is now known simply as, D-Day.  He wrote about his experience on that fateful day and he described the terror that all of the men in his landing craft felt, as they crossed the English Channel and headed towards the coast of France.  It is completely impossible to imagine the courage it took to exit that landing craft and to move up the beach during that day in June.  All the men faced a fear so daunting, it beggars belief.  All of the men that day faced a journey into the unknown.  At the moment when they needed to act, at the moment when it was needed the most, they found the courage to take just one more step.  That day, there were thousands of people who faced their fears, who faced their doubts, who faced the unknown and who stared into the dark abyss.  That day, courage gained a new meaning.  That day, fears were overcome.  And for that, no amount of gratitude will ever be enough.  Thank you Pop.  If you are able to read this, then please know that you inspired me and that even if I did not know you as well as I would have liked, I loved you no less.

_________________________