toasting

they all just left.
and for the first time since they moved,
i can hear the quiet.

i guess it's cause we just spent the evening celebrating having 'made it.'

i cooked dinner, got the table cloth out, set the table pretty,
and we gathered. i wanted to be sure we honored the journey we had
taken together. it was no small feat what we did, and each one of us
made it happen. a team of tremendous proportions. we were gonna honor it.
honor the journey. just honor having been together in the way we were.

they arrived bringing food and laughter with them.
they looked so good.

we feasted and laughed and talked.
reminisced a little.
joked a lot.

and at the end exchanged hugs and i love you's as they headed out
into the nite and the rain.

they thanked me for all my hard work and all i could do was nod.
no words could come out.

what a road we traveled.

if i knew all the hurdles and bumps and worries and work that it involved,
would i do it again?

absolutely.

it was the best thing i've ever done travelin' with those guys like that.
it was an honor and a privilege to share what we shared.

and what amazes me is that i'm not done travelin'.

no path i travel will hold the same things as this one did.
but the things i learned with this journey will be taken into the next and the next.
and i honestly feel like the luckiest person alive.

so i sit quietly in the stillness and toast the honor of living.