"what do you want to bewhen you grow up?"

My sister always says that adults ask little kids that question because they are looking for a good idea for themselves. ;)

Personally, I absolutely love being a graphic designer, and wouldn't want to give that up. But there are so many other things I would love to do (write screenplays, teach children, nurse people back to health, write books, go into the peace corp., work for hospice, be a painter or a poet). I know this sounds selfish, but sometimes I wish I had three of four lives to live, because there is so much i want to do.

But the other day I was talking to a good friend of mine about college--I was asking her what she wanted to major in, and what she wanted to "be." And she responded with an answer that intrigued me. She said,

"I don't know what I want to be....
I just know I want to be 'light'."

Be light...

what a beautiful idea.... and I can honestly say that I know people who really are "light." They are the kind that just radiate love, and hope, and goodness. When they talk to you, they look you right in the eye and make you feel like they deeply care about what is going on in your life. They pay attention to the people that others overlook. They would give you the shirt off their back (even if it was their only one). They know how to bring peace into a tense situation. They are friends with the homeless and the hurting.... and their love of life is absolutely contagious.

I love those people. They truly are light.

But I also know that the most beautiful things I have seen in other people, are reflected light from a brighter source.

popo

Still thinking a lot about how much my life has been affected by other people. Especially about "people who have this power to communicate something of their aliveness in such a way that it is part of our aliveness still."

And I was reminded of how much I have been influenced by a man who feels more like a dream to me. My Popo (my mom's father) passed from this life when I was five. I only have a few memories of him, but I have recently realized how close he is to me even still. I know it was from this ultra-charismatic, Harley-riding, fun-loving man that I inherited my love for people, my delight in children, and a fondness for volkswagons.

Thank you, Popo. I love you still.