The Hour of Departure

Project Blog It

You left. You left in a moment. Not an hour, not a minute. It was a moment. A single, imperceptible moment. I held you and you were there, and then suddenly you had departed. That "hard cold hour" was not one of departing. It was not a process stretched out over sixty minutes. It was the empty space left by one who has already departed. And it's been much more than an hour.

Long ago, you had departed once before. It was a departure that I chose, and because of that, it was much easier to accept. But then you returned and I felt redeemed. My choice was a regrettable choice, but I believed then, or wanted to believe then, that it was the right choice. When you returned, I felt I was given a second chance. And I hoped, wished that your departing would never come forth again. Knowing all the time, that departure is fastened "to all timetables."

Departure is as much a part of arrival as history is a part of the future. We cannot have one without the other. It is the natural course of things. It is the right course of things. My welcoming of you always already carried within it my farewell. Then, the coming goodbye seemed so far away that I didn't need to think about it. Now it seems it came too fast.



Please check the blogs listed on the right for companion pieces to this week's prompt.

Next week's prompt: September