A Thursday Thought

January 3, 2019

The Ship …

I am standing on the shore.

A ship, at my side, spreads her white sails to the moving breeze and heads for the blue ocean.

She is an object of beauty and strength.

I stand and watch her until, at length, she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where sea and sky come to mingle with each other.

Then, someone at my side says, “There..!  She’s gone.”

Gone where..?

Gone from my sight.  That’s all.

She’s just as large in mast, hull and spar as she was when she left my side, just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port.

Her diminished size is in me – not in her.

…and, just at the moment when someone says,

“There.  She’s gone..!

…other eyes are watching her coming, and other voices are ready to take up the glad shout,

“Here she comes..!”

…and that is dying…