And in dreams, we will meet again.....

I was sitting in my room today, playing the Fellowship of the Ring soundtrack softly, mechanically skipping around to all my favorite tracks. I ended up at my favorite, “The Breaking of the Fellowship.” You know, it’s funny how, the older you get, the more meaning that track can hold for you. At fifteen, I thought nothing of it. Pretty, sad, yes, but not particularly meaningful. It’s when you start to really hit that age, that age known as adulthood, that you really start to think about it. It all comes home, when a beloved sister leaves you for college. That’s bad enough…..until you realize that she will soon be in Europe, where visits and phone calls are not just lessened, but completely cut off. The music continues, diving in and over and through all your thoughts….it’s funny, how each strain coming from the c.d. player can suddenly relate to your life. I could see the different times the Fellowship had been broken in my life. Not destroyed: Some things will never die, no matter how many years creep by. But they’ve been chipped, cracked, shredded at times. It’s funny, the emotions the music reveals. The greatest is that of sorrow. A knowledge that life will go on, change is inevitable. But there are other feelings too……one of triumph. It won’t always be broken, because someday a life, different naturally, but just as fulfilling as the one you are living now, will fall into place. The few years of strangeness will be taken over by the peace of a life all your own. But there’s another too: The belief in everlasting friendship. Something that, no matter what, will support and protect you over the years; fight, and even die for you. Even if it’s far away…..or if it’s so close you feel it’s presence every single day. It doesn’t really matter. It’s going to be there for you forever. It's that encouragement that helps you face the loneliness of seperation....you know that even though you're still wandering around, blindly searching for the missing piece.....that piece that can't come back.The piece the merciless hand of time is always dragging away......you know, at that beautiful crash of music at the end of the track, that even though it won't be the same, and it's scary and sad, that you'll live through it. Life is beautiful, full of promise. Living each day as it comes, and not worrying about tomorrow until it comes.....and always holding onto hope, courage, friendship, and love. It's incredible, really incredible, just to be....alive.