My mom taught me that life was breathtaking
And tragic
And heart pounding
fleeting.
She taught me to drink deeply of life
To take all it offers,
To let it fill you completely
And even when it nearly kills you
To embrace it still.
To live in its terrifying realness
And float in its beauty.
To recognize that nothing ever in this world
Is accidental.
Then she taught me to read.
She said
To seek the dragons
And castles and sailing ships
To find the things that others may never see
She said to travel where most will never go
And to lose yourself in dusty books.
She said to touch the ancient pages
To behold the ink and leather
And to try to understand
Everything they wanted us to know.
When you have both,
She said,
Then you have the world.

– Me