A Soliloquy on Goodbye

 

Charlie Brown by Charles Schultz

Life comes at us fast, when we are young:

so many hello's, a cornicopia of people,

events, experiences, emotions, images

flashing past on an accelerated screen.

One begins to sense the built-in parallel goodbyes.

Homes,  loved ones, furry companions,

jobs, towns, dreams - we leave, or they leave us,

a plethora of goodbyes accumulating over time

until loss becomes as familiar as twilight,
blurred with love and tears.

We begin to take our wakings slow, as if to

familiarize ourselves each day with

where we have arrived, the decades

having sped past like a rocking train,

giving one long haunting howl

as it rounds the bend.

Looking back, all of it - all - were gifts:

all the beginnings and small homes and dogs,

children and friends, all the laughter,

the cackling gatherings, the times

that shine golden forever in memory -

so many gifts given, so many received.

Grateful, 

                    grateful, 

                           grateful

for it all.