The recent hiatus in my blog was due to two significant events in my life: the marriage of my oldest daughter and the death of my mother-in-law. While the former was joyous and the latter sad, both entailed a celebration of life, of dreams for the future and of memories from the past.
Such major events mark our lives, placing all other events and relationships in context. They give us comfort, reinforce our bonds and remind us of both the beauty and the fragility of life itself. Of course, they also illustrate our interdependence, placing emphasis on the importance of friends and relatives in our lives.
Though other creatures are not equipped to acknowledge these milestones, they share the same course of existence on this planet, from birth, to procreation to death. Most of the biochemical processes that govern our thoughts, our emotions and our physiology are identical to those found in "lower species." We are all products of an evolutionary stream that, on Earth, began 3.6 billion years ago; our participation may be brief but the rewards of life are countless.
