Crossing the Channel

End: green shores appear; we assume our names,
Our luggage, as docks halt our brief epic; no debt
Survives arrival; we walk the plank with strangers.
-From Channel Crossing by Sylvia Plath

We all go through struggles and rough waters in our own little epics. Times aren't always easy, in fact, most of the time they're difficult more often than they are not. At least in my experience. But every once in a while we seem to find ourselves in a resting period. Brief or years long, we get a chance to catch our breath and see all the good stuff life has to offer.

After the turbulent times, sometimes we find ourselves trying to redefine our place in the world. Maybe redefine isn't the right word, or at least not in that context... but, rather, we have become redefined as who we are, even if our names and faces haven't changed. Now we have baggage, though, we have memories we'd like to forget and quick reactions in order to protect ourselves from the past occurring again. Sometimes we have wonderful peace and we can actually see how it all works out in the end. One way or another. And after the mess is cleaned up and the tears dried, we are left, allowed to start again.

Trying to start again, sometimes we look around at the people we knew then and we realize that we no longer know each other. Or, maybe, we never did.

Either way, sometimes relationships have to come to a natural close, even if it's hard to do. Growing apart isn't a bad thing, scary as it may be, sometimes it's healthiest to just let it be. To let time do it's thing, to let ourselves grow for purposes we have yet to find.