It is easy to forget
As we set about our daily tasks
That every new day is a step closer to a goodbye,
A final loss signifying an end in a string of tiny daily losses.
The person I awoke to be this morning
Will not be the person who seeks at day’s end,
No matter in what state of joy or despair
From that day’s events,
The respite of a good night’s sleep.
Wiser people than I
Have pointed out the truth
That every new relationship
Is the first step toward an inevitable need to say “Goodbye.”
We so want to ignore the quality of impermanence
That is the most indelible characteristic
Of our living in this world.
We find it too painful to contemplate;
Too frightening, even terrifying, to know
And face that truth.
And, yet, without that Truth and its awareness
To inform our every choice and every thought
We run the danger of only half living.
We run the danger that comes with unconscious choices;
Choices that salve some hungry part of ourselves
But ignore the tiny voice of conscience;
Choices that deny the heart and soul
And attend to the loud cries of the Ego
Seeking in vain not to die
Or to be heard by a world that does not care.
So I want to seek to celebrate each new day
In the full knowledge that loss
That day and every day is inevitable;
Change is what makes both Life’s
Successes and disappointments
Its joys and sorrows all possible.
In a state of conscious acceptance
I hope to have a better chance
Of fully appreciating the seconds and minutes
Of the day before me;
Of remembering to turn with an open heart
Toward meeting the needs of the people I love
And who love me;
Of being more fully present to all the world
And all of Nature’s treasures;
Of not missing some important event,
Some slight, but critically valuable moment in the illusion of Time,
That can mean the difference between life and death,
Joy and despair,
For myself, my loved ones or that special person
I have yet to meet.
October 31, 2015