" Several years ago,
I visited a friend who had built a country cottage,
surrounded by a vast rolling garden of sunlit meadows,
rainbow blooms, shaded glens,
streams and ponds.

It was impossible to see
the entire garden all at once.
The only way to imagine the wholeness of the garden
was to walk through it,
follow the winding path
and view the garden from different perspectives.
Invariably, secrets revealed themselves
around each bend.
And sometimes, I chose to step off the winding path
and follow the contours of the land
and my heart.

In my youth, I imaged my entire life
planned out before me,
a straight path, if you like.
Today, I know that I was seeing
only one perspective.
And like any winding path,
perspective may change around each bend:
youth, sacrifice, friendship, success, love, parenthood,
joy, loss, folly, misfortune, and aging.

And yet, no matter how many turns we may take,
we may not fully comprehend
the wholeness of our life,
the unifying secret of our life,
until we look back
on all that has come before. "

― Jeffrey A. White , A Blueness I Could Eat Forever