It's been a long week. I've been at a resort all week...for work. It was all business. I don't think we needed to go to a big resort for all the leisure we had--or didn't have, depending on your point of view. Still, the boss paid for it, so it should be work. And it was up by 6 and kept going until 8 or 9, and only then back to your room. By the time I got into comfortable clothes and stretched a bit, I needed to sleep.

But I did walk. A lot. Everywhere. Not an elevator in sight in this three storey place, and it must have been a quarter mile from my room to the main meeting area. And I needed to keep going back and forth. The backs of my thighs and my bottom side are pretty stiff tonight.

The rest of the world, or my little corner of it, seemed to go OK. But I'm getting that feeling that something is going to blow the lid off things and my world will fall apart. I hope all is well and stays well.

For now, we must Seize the Day! Enjoy the moment, and don't bring tomorrow too soon!

I didn't walk tonight. I did something better! I watched my daughter graduate college. She has worked hard, and she made it, finally! She's waited a long time, and now she has succeeded. I am very proud of her.

But, even in the midst of such high excellence, there was a moment of sadness as a young man of promise was remembered. In January, a student died in a car accident. I didn't know this young man, but he sounded as if he had been a good man...and was bound for even better things. Until his life stopped, that is. I wept for this young person, a person I never met.

The other young people in the room, though, knew him, and they all respected his memory in a moment of silence before they continued to celebrate the event. This even is a milestone in all these promising futures, and I hope that all of them succeed in reaching each of their dreams.

I walked a mile tonight. That may not seem like much to some people, but for me it is absolutely astounding. I walked amongst green trees, next to the river, and it was a time that I intended for exercise--and it turned out to be a time of self examination.

Maybe when we forget the television (I even missed American Idol's to take my walk!) and the family bickering and put one step in front of another, then do it again and again, our brain just goes into neutral--just before it really absorbs the world around it and refreshes thoughts that had been long forgotten.

I liked the walk, and I hope I have the motivation to keep doing it...each night. I need to do it for my weight and for my mind...and for the pleasure.

Life in Morrison County is precious. Today I was told that there are quite a few young people that have died in the past year. Most of them knew each other. They were all young, and they died way too young. The deaths were not necessarily connected, but the people were--some may not have known each other, but they all were connected by their lives.

Life should be an adventure for each of us, and as we journey through each day trying to reach the final destination, the experiences we find along the way should be fully appreciated. There are people that live to be over a century old, and there are those that seem to barely have experienced life before they are taken from us. However long they are here, I truly hope that each journey was adventurous and allowed each person to accept the world that shaped the life they lived.

There is no greater pain than the loss of a life that holds so much hope and promise. Dreams are taken, and only memories remain. Nothing can replace those dreams and hopes for tomorrow. All we can do is appreciate the adventure and remember the lives...and we can continue to love the people, young and old, whose deaths have leant to us a sacred appreciation of all that life offers.

Tonight I cry for young people I never knew...but I know their lives were precious, and whenever even one precious dream is lost through death, then we all hurt.

It has been a long day. Throughout the day, I thought of Mr. Wilczek's family, and I pray that they are finding the support they so well deserve.

And it has been a long time since this morning. I feel like I've had a bad week, and it's only Wednesday...but I think there are others in this world whom are suffering tonight. My own concerns are nothing compared to those, and I hope they are doing their best to take strength from whatever source they can. Strength and hope.