Everything we love eventually teaches us about leaving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A season ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A song finishes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A child grows taller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A house becomes someone else’s house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even a good afternoon eventually becomes a memory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We usually call this loss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But leaving is not always the same thing as disappearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A person can leave a room and remain in your thoughts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A teacher can leave your life and remain in the way you think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A parent can die and still be present in the sentences you learned from them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A friend can move across the world and still make you laugh at something nobody else understands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Things leave their original shape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They do not necessarily leave the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is true of us too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The body changes constantly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cells arrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cells leave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The person you were ten years ago is not the person sitting here now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And yet somehow there is continuity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A thread running through changing cloth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We don’t know exactly what that thread is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Memory?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Identity?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Consciousness?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Story?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Something deeper?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I don’t know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Death makes the question impossible to avoid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And here, perhaps, we should resist the temptation to make promises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maybe there is something afterward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maybe consciousness continues in a way we cannot presently understand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maybe there is nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maybe reality is stranger than either answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We don’t know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But we do know this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
while we are here, we touch things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We change them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They change us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A person can die and leave kindness behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A writer can die and leave words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A parent can die and leave habits in a child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A stranger can hold a door open once, and that tiny act can become part of someone’s memory for decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are constantly leaving pieces of ourselves behind without noticing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perhaps that is one of the quiet truths of being alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You are temporary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So is everything around you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And temporary does not mean meaningless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A fire does not become worthless because it goes out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A song does not become worthless because it ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A life does not become worthless because it cannot last forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maybe impermanence is not the opposite of meaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maybe it is part of what gives meaning its shape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So we can grieve what leaves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can miss it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can say:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I wish you were still here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And we do not have to solve that feeling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some doors are allowed to remain closed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some goodbyes are simply goodbyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can still carry what was given to us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And perhaps, someday, someone else will carry something we left behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fancy Dust is particularly good at this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It gets everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can never quite find all of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perhaps that is the point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not everything needs to stay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some things are meant to travel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some things are meant to change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some things are meant to be remembered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And some things\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n
we simply let go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Everything we love eventually teaches us about leaving. A season ends. A song finishes. A child grows taller. A house becomes someone else’s house. Even a good afternoon eventually becomes a memory. We usually call this loss. Sometimes it is. But leaving is not always the same thing as disappearing. A person can leave a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n