As I lay in my bed that night in a little Hotel in Rangeley, Maine, I became acutely aware of how alive I was. Al of my senses seemed to have been fine-tuned. I felt my legs standing on the floor, I kept telling myself over and over again that I was alive, and the meal that I had eaten that in the cabin of my rescuers was still vivid in my memory. The following morning on the way back to my new found friends' cabin I kept looking out at the mountains and the vast wilderness of the Western Maine woods, I inhaled every second of everything within my vision and my immediate, and my distant off physical space.

I was alive both spiritually and physically. As a spiritual message, I took my experience very seriously. Something was telling me that I was supposed to be around for a while longer. Precisely what for I did not know, but I knew that I was not at the end of my cameo appearance in this universe just yet. A musician friend said that maybe God wanted me around to play some more blues. I took it to mean it that way too, as well as a good kick in the ass to get going on these other projects that hold some degree of promise for me if no one else.

I have yet to create a masterpiece of any great magnitude. I do, however, have a better appreciation of the masterpiece of the mystery of life and fully appreciate that every day one is alive the universe is telling you that the world is yours and you can do as you wish with it. In a more profound sense, the universe gives us all subtle clues about what it is one is here for and that to read these clues, one must stop and listen to them ever so intently as they are not found in the chaotic everyday lives that we all have succumbed to, but come from deep within the soul and the psyche.

About the author: Bob Lane lives in the Augusta, Maine. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Maine at Farmington and an Associate Degree in Music from the University of Maine at Augusta. Following completion of his music program at UMA, he spent six months traveling across the United States in a van and making his living as a skydiving instructor. Landing in Perris Valley California, Lane lived in the fuselage of a wrecked Twin Beech aircraft and worked as an instructor at Perris Valley Skydiving Center for a year.

Bob Lane returned to Augusta, Maine where he currently lives after a year in Los Angeles. Bob is an avid outdoorsman and licensed Master Maine Guide, specializing in two person and couples canoe and photography trips. In addition to his "real" job as a Planner for the Maine Department of Labor, he is a well-known photographer in the Kennebec Valley area. A member of the Maine Professional Photographers Association and the Kennebec Valley Art Association, Bob Lane is also a fledgling writer with his first novel in progress and is an experienced Chicago- style blues guitar player.

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