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A Letter From Heaven-1992-age 17:

My dear Lanie, last time we spoke,
You were approaching the age of twelve.
You asked me to explain the great mystery of life.
I can say now that there is no one mystery,
But hundreds.

One will say that life is
A roller coaster,
Twists and turns
Land you upside down
Then right side up.

Another will say that life is
A baseball game.
Sometimes you strike out.

Sometimes you hit home.

I say life is a play,
With five acts apportioned to every man.

Act I is innocence,
Where life sustains all its wonder.

Act II is innocence lost,
Where struggle and misery prevail.

Act III is self-discovery,
Where you find new pieces of yourself.

Act IV is selflessness,
Where you breathe life into others.

Act V is repose,
Where wonder sustains again.
You lose and regain yourself
You once again witness miracles.

You, my grandchild,
Are between loss and self-discovery.
It is frightening to be at intervals.

You are climbing a rope to the sky.
You have made it to the clouds,
Like a veil,
Tainting your vision.

You are afraid to go on.
You cannot see what lies ahead.
You want to go back down.
That is what you know,
Where you feel safe.

Know that if you do,
You will only have to climb up again.
You must continue to climb.
You will make it past the mist.

That my love is life.
One vast mystery,
Full of little unknowns.
It can welcome.
It can resist.

Life is a roller coaster,
A baseball game,
And a play.

It is a metaphor,
A simile,
And an illusion.

You begin life
As a creation.
You go on to create more life,
More beauty in the mystery.

Before you go on,
You must know this.
There is no summation,
No one answer.

There is only you.
Within yourself
You will find all I have said.

The first of each act
Will feel like the last.
The last will always be
A prelude to the first.

Learn more about this author, TC Crumpton.
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