I just got back from a Shinto shrine

[slightlv]

3. When my husband was stationed there (AF)

he wanted our daughter to come live with him and his new wife. After a hard time figuring what was selfish of me and what wasn't (a really hard one to figure in this situation), I agreed. I told my daughter to explore everything; that this was a real opportunity that she was being given that so many of us would wish to be in her place. Not exactly a chip off the old block (and being a teenager, to boot) she fell in with the young crowd, but did nothing of what I'd have deemed first on my "list." That includes the shrines, the mountains, Cat Island, and all the beautiful gardens.

I think this is why so many say youth is wasted on the young. You may get these chances when you're younger, but you really don't appreciate all the beauty and serenity until you're older. By then, life has happened and the money has flown every which way but in your pocket. And so you sit... dreaming.

These days I wouldn't wish to be young again... not with what we've got coming at us for the next few years or decade. But it's thinking of the beauty of far off lands that gets me every time.