a reminder i set to myself, words of an old friend, drifting at distance:
“so it is that a human soul, once loved deeply, can in absence become a presence as strong as when alive, and all the more mysteriously vibrant for it; and the steady pressure that such an active absence exerts on us to live up to its vision can bring us sometimes to tears, and sometimes to greatness. we have felt this in the inspirations we have gained from our grandfathers and grandmothers, from friends and lovers, from teachers and artists who have passed from our lives…”
for all the distance, and for the strangeness of the circumstances which called these words forth, and its distance from this moment, the meaning is not distant.
indeed, the words are much closer and meaningful and lasting than either of us turned out to be to one another.
i choose to view them as a whisper from the universe, rendered through the breath of another. there is comfort in these words. i hope they bring the same to you, whomever you are, reading.