It's a beautiful world out there folks. It amazes me just how many of us little ants are out there, living, loving, scared, hungry, rich, poor, healthy or sick. We are all so different; yet, we are all the same. The same emotions experienced in so many different ways.

So I wonder, is the path we've taken one that we've chosen? Or is the path we've taken one that was chosen for us? Our environment, our social status, our genetic markings, the people we encounter all influence the choices we make and why we make them.

Would I love my husband as much as I do if my father had been more of a father? Would my devotion to my marriage be as strong if I had been thin and pretty during my thirties, prime time for affairs due to the seven year itch? If I had been given the opportunity to cheat when my husband was neglecting me, would I have? Would my husband love me with the intense passion he has now if he hadn't watched in awe and amazement as I fought, dug and crawled against all odds, against his own resistance to my efforts, to achieve the goals I have set forth for me?

Would my children be as strong against the influences of peer pressure if I had not cleaned up my act for them? and would my children be better prepared for the future, if I had enforced strict rules for education, religion and finances? Would I have been a better mother or would my children have scattered in the wind, in defiance of an overbearing ogre?

If I could do it all over again, I would make different choices. I would live life to the fullest, be better prepared for the future, have less material possessions and more life affirming experiences. I would...I could of...I should of...but I didn't. No matter which choices were made, I do know one thing, I would want to end up in the same place. The choices I made or didn't make, would I have been better off? Maybe, or maybe, just maybe, I'm better off because of them. One never knows.

One never knows the path one would have taken until the path is taken.