I’m great at compartmentalizing.  Close the door, turn the page. If that’s something people should aspire to be good at.  My life has taken unforeseen turns, and I’ve followed blind alleys to their frustrating ends.  I know the experience is not mine alone, but alone I’ve felt each time the bridge I crossed burst into flames.  I’ve had to say good-bye more often than appropriate for one longing for his place in this world.    

There have been occasions when I was more than happy to shut the door on a project or period, but I have often done it reluctantly- realizing there was nothing else to do.  And, sometimes, the decision was not mine to make. Rather, I was forced to deal with what had become the new reality. Much of life is not meant to be permanent. However, even I, a changeling, do not like change.  It’s hard. 

Change means starting over.  A voyage into the unfamiliar.  Now, that can be an enjoyable thing in itself, but it is also fraught with danger.  Nothing is a sure bet. Out of the comfort zone. It’s especially hard if change comes at the end of long acquaintance.  Bonds will break, tears will dry and phone numbers will be lost. Soon, we will have forgotten the particulars of enjoyable events and only feel a vague sense of loss and what might have been.

Nothing lasts forever.  That is, excluding intangible things.  Those wax in the waning of years. Some of them are even eternal.  In a world of loose connections, we all long for the feeling of permanence- even if it is yet to come.  A group of young campers once sang:

“Brothers, now our meeting is over and surely we must part.

If I never see you again, I will love you from my heart.

We will land on shore, we will land on shore,

We will land on shore, and we’ll sing forever more.”

We often speak of heaven as a place of renewed acquaintance.  Pardon me for not believing that as the main point of heaven, but it is true.  And, the relationships there will be relationships as they should be. On earth, many things end on sour notes but not there.  There, the joy is unending and the ability to enjoy is ultimate.

Salvation brings an end to sadness and separation.  Speaking to this point, John said, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.”

Sterl