“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

At birth in 1916 my Grandfather weighed 1 lb. His makeshift crib was a shoebox and his incubator the family oven.

My Dad exercised too hard and surrendered to sudden cardiac arrhythmia - so swiftly, he never suspected he died.

At 80 mph a six-foot steel pipe shattered my windshield. It landed just shy of my passenger, my Mom. She was spared by a sliver of a second or degree or some divine combination.

Why some people, why some moments and why not others?
Our fragile little lives are erratic, uncontrollable, fleeting and inexplicable.

So on this journey, I will craft a plan to guide me, but I will strive to stray from the plan whenever possible.

I will relish the weak moments that painfully rattle my soul and stretch my psyche.

I will accept that some things I desire will never be, but what I do find will lead me where I need to go.

I will default to yes.

I will strive to be criticized for who I am rather than loved for who I am not.

I will continue to love completely knowing that I will lose.

And with me, I will carry Dad's promise that there is always a way to make things work and his simple advice to find happiness in what I choose to be and do.

— Alison Fournier