When we leave some people behind in time and move ahead only with their memories, time seems to pass so much more swiftly ...
I read this piece often (don't know the author) and it's strangely comforting:
"I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength. I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other. Then someone at my side says, "There, she is gone."
"Gone where?"
Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side, and she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port. Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at the moment when someone at my side says, "There, she is gone!" there are other eyes watching her coming, and there are other voices ready to take up the glad shout, "Here she comes!"
And that is dying."
The painting is an old one from about 18 years ago that I painted while in college as a reproduction of a favorite poster by an unknown artist. The poster had this child's face with the words "Remember me as loving you." It seemed apt for the day.
