" When I found out I had ALS at the age of 29, I began to see what’s really important. Waiting for what I truly wanted to experience began to seem silly with the potential shortening of my life at hand. But I didn’t think of ALS as a death sentence then and I don’t now, a year later.

 

In fact, while I search for ways to heal I have come to see it as an opportunity in many ways, to grow into an expanded sense of love, joy, gratitude, and peace; those things I always yearned for yet found myself too busy to give proper time to.

 

In this ALS is the great simplifier, reducing physical function so that the only choice given is to look within as outer responsibilities fall away. And as I look, love is what I’m finding. Both self-love so long withheld and compassion for all people in the recognition that we are all in this together, this crazy ride called life. We each have our burdens to bear, and while no one can carry them for us we can offer one another the love that is our true nature, making life a little bit lighter for one another, and in so doing make the world a better place.

 

It is from this perspective that I wrote the poems in this book, most of which have little to do with ALS itself but carry the seeds of learning I am gathering on this journey. I hope that the words in this book find you in whatever way they are meant to and that in some way they lift you up.

 

In love and gratitude, Ryan. "