[Dennis Slattery]

Thank you so much for your personal story, JA. I am simply taking the first two letters of your communication. I hope you don’t mind. I find the details of your story so inspiring, as I did James’ response and his own childhood being moved about. It makes me think that wandering is a universal journey, not heading necessarily to one destination or the other, but allowing the journey to run the show and to be willing to yield to its wisdom.

I also am gratified and share with you and others how works of literature can be wisdom vessels to carry us to the next station of our cross and our crossroads. I think it is such an act of courage to trust what cannot be grasped or understood but to yield to it regardless. I think the wisdom of our choices, as you reveal in your posting, is a rear-view-mirror phenomenon. We look back and see the patterns that have blessed us, and we may sense the transcendent, in whatever form we wish to call it, mingling with the temporal.

And perhaps most importantly, someone came into your life who found YOU of interest. What a gift to be seen, witnessed and responded to. That is sometimes all that a human being needs to feel to take some measure of control for one’s destiny.

I am very grateful for your response. And I am grateful to your for turning your treasure into a pathway for others in service to those who need someone like you to witness. Wonderful work, my friend.