That’s what all of this has been about. Life in all its complexity and richness was everywhere around me, in the shape of a cloud as it moved across the sky, in the wind as it stirred the water into splashing whitecaps, in the boy’s laughter, in the birds dancing above his head...and in me, in my heart which simultaneously embraced the fullness of sorrow, and the completeness of joy and love. I felt no need to explain, not to myself, not to anyone. I knew exactly what I was doing. “I’m alive,” I said out loud. “And I want to continue living.”