Arrivals and Departures

A poem by Joshua Steinfeldt

Like the tide

There is an ebb and flow that connects us all

It’s in the rising sun

The changing leaves

And the ones we love taking their last breath.

In the arrivals

When the snow melts

When the wildflowers gather

And the hummingbirds return to the garden

We choose to look

Lingering

On what’s beautiful

Possibility,

hope,

Life’s gentle reminders

of the extraordinary opportunity

each moment brings

to begin

again.

When we like what we see

We ask, with a subtle tone

of desperation,

Won’t you just stay as you are?

Our heart knowing

That upon their arrival

these moments are already slipping

through our fingers.

Knowing that

Everything we love,

Everything we find beautiful,

Everything,

Eventually falls away.

And yet we ask anyway

We ask because

We’re human

We ask because

as much as we want it to,

goodbye doesn’t always mean

I will see you again.

But mostly we ask because

it takes time and courage

to catch up

with the heart.

In the departures

There’s a sting

A grief for love’s loss

We feel it when we dare

to look

Seeing a reflection we don’t recognize

Asking, where is the person

I thought I was supposed to be?

The courage fades

And we look away

Hoping we’ll wake up

Into a dream

But when we open our eyes

We see

The great thread of impermanence

Is both

The arrivals

And the departures

And we finally accept

What the heart has known

All along.

Being alive

Really living

Means

To see

And experience

the bittersweet miracle

Of it all.