Taking stock of self

” And one morning we get up… We’re thirty, forty, and soon to be fifty…

We realize that the years have passed at full speed, that they have left us with a few wrinkles in the corners of our eyes.

And the clock continues to tick, at full speed…

So we take stock!

We think back to the people we have more or less known,

To those who counted,

Those who left too soon and whom we regret,

Those who made us laugh or cry…

We remember the moments of happiness,

To those in which we felt alone and

to the dreams we had…

We see that everyone has traced their own path,

Some better than others,

But it is at this moment that we realize that there are several stages in a life.

Each of these stages is different,

Each one has a particular taste and smell,

And to each we assimilate faces,

Names, memories.

Hatreds and loves…

This is what life really is:

A succession of memories…”

photo Jonas Peterson

Nothing true can be lost

“I do not say goodbye,

for in truth, there is no such thing.

Instead, I say,

‘May love find you

and may joy return to you,

until we meet again.’

For nothing that is truly real can ever be lost,

and for those I am still to return to,

I choose to remember them

through smiles rather than tears,

and honour them

by becoming everything I love most about them.”

~ Tahlia Hunter

Art | by Oscar Zwincher “Grief”, 1898