There is something mystical about trains.

Last weekend, I flew to Chicago, Illinois to attend and photograph my brother's wedding. My connecting flight, which was in Baltimore, Maryland, was delayed 24 hours because of the fire at the Control Tower in Aurora, Illinois on Friday (26-September). Not wanting to spend the day in a hotel room I decided to do some sight seeing. So I rode the Light Rail Commuter Train to the Inner Harbor in downtown Baltimore, and while I was riding the train, a vision popped in my head. It was almost like an epiphany. It is this vision that I wish to share with you. Maybe you can relate.

I was taken back in time to my late teens or early 20's. I had moved out of my parent's house trying to make it on my own, trying to figure out how to get by, and also trying to figure out what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I worked any job I could find to be able to pay the rent for a very small apartment. Obviously, money was scarce. 

But I did have one thing that all the money in the world could not buy. On the commuter train that would take me back to my meager apartment, there was a young woman sitting beside me who loved me as much as I loved her. And as we rode home on the train, we talked about our current circumstances and how we could change them for the better. We were young, scared, but believed we could get through anything if we did it together. When we finished talking, actually she fell asleep in my arms, I held her close and thanked God that she was in my life. She was the woman I loved. She was someone who loved me, believed in me, and wanted to journey her life's experience with me.

We worked through those tough times, and we would share many more journeys throughout our lives. Fast forward to the present. Now we are senior citizens and we still look forward to the journeys that lie ahead of us, knowing whatever life throws at us we will work through it together, because we have done so in the decades we have been together. But I will always recall that night we rode home together on the train as one of the happiest moments of my life. She is, and always will be, the love of my life.

As many of you know, this is not the way life turned out for me (real vs ideal). But I am not bitter, rather, I am very thankful. I have many people in my life that I am grateful for --- my brother and sister, my children, and my close friends who know me only too well, and love me despite me being me.

But I am, and will always be, the incurable romantic.

And so until next time, be thankful for those in your life who love you. They are to be revered.

Paul P.