Goodbye...

Life.

It rolls in with the morning tide and rolls out at the end of the day. There is no starting it. There is no stopping it. It has a rhythm of its own.

As the tide rises and our lives begin, it fills empty spaces everywhere. The ocean seems to reach unreachable places with its breadth. It is full. It is itself.

Yet as much as we enjoy its majesty, the tide must return to itself. To where it began.

It is a melancholic and painful goodbye.

Oh how I wish to hold on… just for a moment longer.

But then its gone.

I sit on the empty beach.

Stranded.

Alone.

Trying to remember with all my strength how it all was,

Desperate for a sign that it ever existed.

As I catch my breath amidst my bitter, soul wrenching sobs,

I see something sticking out underneath my foot.

A sand dollar.

A tiny, yet astoundingly exquisite memento left behind by the receded tide.

What is gone is gone.

No one can bring it back.

My life is forever changed because of you.

I hold you in my heart because you were a part of me.

And I will cherish the sand dollars that I find along the way as a reminder of who you were.

To never forget.  

Life, just like tides, cannot exist without leaving a permanent imprint on us.

I am branded forever.