WHAT IS LIFE REALLY ALL ABOUT?

WHAT IS LIFE REALLY ALL ABOUT?

I found this poem on the internet today and it reveals the way I feel about life in general.  It was written by Polly C., a young woman from Norwich in England.  I only wish I could put words together as she has done. I have never travelled the world as Polly obviously has but the sentiments she expresses are so wonderful.   I just had to share it and I hope others will see the beauty and wisdom in these words.

A JOURNEY

"It doesn't really matter if you get there or not; it's what you see along the way.
The feelings inspired when the landscape and your soul entwine.
It's someone else's smile breaking the illusion of your own life,
Showing you that everything you used to think was neither right nor wrong.
Different foods tantalise your taste buds; smells, a coloured market pitched on dusty ground
Where no-one laid a path, the lack of which means feet can walk anyway they want to.
Dreams spill from the roofs of shanty towns;
Ambitions - not trampled down, but blooming like a snow-white rose in smog.
Somebody greets you and plays you a tune on a beaten-up guitar;
It's the best you've heard all year.
Life only needs the simplest things to sparkle like diamonds,
No matter where you are or what your name is.
Suddenly I realise I don't know where I belong - everywhere and nowhere, all at once.
After all, laughter is the same the world over;
The giggle of a child with wide open eyes; a game of hide and seek outside;
The touch of a parent; the knowing smile of an old woman with lines like a map of life.
No need for fame, riches or acknowledgment to make her days worthwhile.
Why is she so happy with her tiny lot?  Perhaps she knows far more than me.
Perhaps success is the ultimate illusion .......
Coming not from climbing ladders, but from staring at the pink sky at dusk and seeing beauty.
Is it reached by chasing dreams or from feeling love inside our own hearts
Beating within us, following us wherever we go?
Or is it simply knowing who we really are underneath the clothes,
Salon-styled hair, the shoes with a name on?
We could sit alone beneath the roof of a house with carpets and comfort and watch TV
Or how about we play cards and drink Raki under Turkish stars
With new friends who stop to say "hello"?
Two men play backgammon on the pavement as scooters whiz by; what a lovely way to spend a day.
Time wasting is relative - children do it all the time...or so we think.
Maybe the truth is the other way around; life is not as long as we once believed;
Might as well spend it doing what we love.
A lady from Israel once said to me: "How nice to see your children on the train
Seeing people, seeing life.. not cooped up with just a car window watching it all go by."
And there is so much to see in this world of ours;
Sometimes we have to take our blinkers off and open our eyes just a little bit more;
See the quiet beauty of nature, feel the strength of a mountain;
Sense the formidable power of a volcano -
If only to make ourselves feel small and insignificant.
And as we tread our path we learn that every encounter, no matter how fleeting,
Can teach us something about ourselves.
Life might seem complex but can really be quite simple -
Sometimes all we need to feel happy is the beauty of a bougainvillea tree in bloom.

I truly hope you took the time to read this poem and enjoyed it as much as I did.  If you did then I'd be delighted if you could leave a short comment telling me how the poem made you feel.  It made me feel simply wonderful and at peace.