You learn a lot of things on your journey through Life. You learn how to be nice to people, and how to hurt them. You learn when to hold on and when to let go. You learn when to walk away and when to run. Sometimes you pause, usually around these times, and take a look back at the trail you�ve left behind. You wince at some things, cry over others, laugh like you used to over many, and for the majority, hopefully, you just smile.

There are people in your life that you will always remember, though never see again. They will always be remembered for how they were, captured perhaps in the middle of a smile or with the guilty look of someone caught in the act. You�ll hear there voice echo in your head as they re-speak that thing they once said that left a mark on your brain. We all have these people, hundreds of them; and, in looking back at the trail I�ve left behind, I wonder what my memory might have looked like without them, and thank fate that I�ll never have to know.

So, for all my soldiers out there who have come and gone, I salute you. Be brave young scout.

There is another source of wealth and dignity from which you can relate to other fellow human beings. You can relate to them because you are still a human being, within the human community. You share that bond. And that human bond is enough to give rise to a sense of worth and dignity. That bond can become a source of consolation in the event that you lose everything else. – His Holiness the Dalai Lama