I Don’t Know Why…

I don’t know why.
I’ll never know why.
I don’t have to know why.
I don’t like it.
I don’t have to like it.
What I do have to do is make a choice
about my living.
What I want to do is accept it and
go on living.
The choice is mine.

I can go on living, valuing every moment
in a way I never did before,
or I can be destroyed by it and,
in turn, destroy others.

I thought I was immortal.
that my family and my children were also.
That tragedy happened only to others.
But I know now that life is tenuous
and valuable.

So I am choosing to go on living,
making the most of the time I have,
valuing my family and friends
in a way never possible before.

Iris M. Bolton