I love knowing that I have lots of friends and family who love me and would miss me if I was gone. I love music. I love humour. I love being able to walk out in my garden and seeing things grow - experiencing the cycles of nature. I love the fact that I am alive to see it all and to breathe the air and smell the smells. I love being able to use all my senses to experience this thing called life. And most of all, I love the knowledge that I am a part of it all.

My son gave me a VCR for Christmas because my old one had died and I have a lot of movies on video which I have not been able to watch for a while, and which would be hard to find otherwise. One of my most treasured movies, which I will find and watch again soon, is "The Seven Faces of Dr Lao", and one of the best quotes from a movie that I ever heard comes right at the end of this one, and captures for me the joy of being alive:

"Mike, the whole world is a circus if you look at it the right way. Every time you pick up a handful of dust, and see not the dust, but a mystery, a marvel, there in your hand, every time you stop and think, 'I'm alive, and being alive is fantastic!' Every time such a thing happens, Mike, you are part of the Circus of Dr. Lao."