Why wait until 71?

71 years ago I was born.

My soul chose to be born.

And, what's more, I was born 71 years ago with a dream.

You know how hard it is to remember dreams?

I think that is true for the dreams we are born with.

But, fortunately, our souls never forget.

That's a good thing and it should be enough,

But often we also forget that we have a soul!

We may even be embarrassed by the suggestion

That such a thing as a soul is more than just a fluffy metaphor.

Imagine! But how could we forget such a thing.

But it's not so much that we forget we have a soul,

But we get caught up in all the drama of life

Because it seems like that's all there is

And the soul gets pushed aside

Like a homeless person.

But there she is, standing by the road

In the cold, holding a hand-written sign that says,

"Please stop. I am your soul."

Or "Your dream for food."

But you don't stop. Sometimes you don't even slow down.

For 40 or 50 years I mean, we don't slow down!

But then the drama of life begins to sour and fade

And something triggers our memory of our birth-dream.

Like maybe we get word that someone

That we haven't seen since childhood just died,

And all the drama, in spite of all the hype and fanfare

Doesn't seem all that important for the moment.

Somebody said to watch for a surprise in the credits.

So we watch the credits scroll for another 5 years.

But then, if we are lucky,

There is a soft knock on the door. It's our soul

And she or he says, "I have something for you."

And that can happen to people late in life.

The sad part is we might have to grow old

Before our soul comes home. Or even sadder,

We wait for all the credits to end

And there is no surprise, and only then,

When we are staring at a blank screen,

Do we realize, there is more to life than drama.

Much, much more.