With great pleasure.

The most amazing discovery of my life. It's gotta be the ability to fall in love. Of course, my initial discovery. Maybe at age 3 or 4. Was the discovery that I'm alive. Conscious. Aware. That I exist. But I took my presence in the physical world rather matter-of-factly. Because I really didn't know it was so amazing. It just was. I'm told that I arrived on Earth at 10:16 p.m. on 9/11/35. But to the best of my knowledge, I still didn't have consciousness. Maybe I didn't yet even have a soul or a spirit. Could be. I still wonder about it. Maybe my inner being didn't arrive until a year or two or three later. After it was determined that my body was fully capable and equipped to contain a soul. Could be my soul, my very essence so to speak, was shopping around for a place to land. Maybe I had choices. I could just as easily have ended up in an empty body in Asia, Africa or Europe. Finally, I decided to become a Broede. In Chicago, of all places. Turns out to have been a wise choice. I have no regrets. It's been a wonderful adventure. Here on this planet Earth. I suspect I could just as easily have ended up on another planet in another universe in another dimension in another time. I took a risk. A gamble. And it's paid off. Yes, because I discovered I had the ability to experience falling in love. Not once. But twice. That, more than anything, has made life worthwhile. When my soul eventually returns to wherever it came from, I'll reflect on the experience of love. With great pleasure. --Jim Broede