There is one thing that never fails to make me smile. It lets me think. It lets me lose myself in every way. It creates moments that take your breath away.

One such moment I will never forget…

She was only 15 when she died. After the service, I walked by myself. I don’t remember where I walked, but it seemed like time stood still and that I was the only person in the world. Then it started to rain, just lightly at first, but slowly evolving into a reluctant downpour. I somehow ended up at the corner of dowtown Chicago, maybe a mile or so from the church. As I stood in the rain, I had never felt so at ease. All the pain of the past few weeks since her death just rolled of my shoulders with the rain. I realized that we don’t all live forever, no matter how invincible we feel. She died from cancer, only months after being diagnosed. She was my best friend and had done nothing wrong to deserve this. Standing in the rain, in the midst of hundreds of strangers I finally realized…no one lives forever.