Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

A Poem by Mariah

Parting is such sweet sorrow
For although time may pass
Our thoughts and memories fade
And slowly fall through the cracks and crevices
Only then to resurface at the pinnacle of peculiar times
Those unresolved emotions lurking in the recesses of our minds
Like a restless spirit
The pain we have neglected thus far
That we have buried deep within the earth
Has been the soil from which our life has emerged
Nurtured by the desire to live a life we have imagined
And fertilized by the goal of escaping the life extended to us
By the generations before
And it is from this naïve idealism
That our well-intentioned but otherwise misguided dream
Begins to unravel
For the seed we planted was tainted by the infertile soil of our innocence
Although it would grow and mature
Time was not an ally
Soon the foundation of our dream rattled and shook until the edifice collapsed
Beneath the rubble lie that forsaken soil
We spend the early parts of our lives feeling as though we must live out the life envisioned for us by others
At times we even construct our dreams around ideas
That are not harmonious with our innermost desires
In an effort to convince ourselves that such is the way of life
And we are but mere passengers in this grand and static existential experience
And yet the latter parts of our lives must be dedicated to deconstructing this mentality
Though we are given life by another
Our first breath up to our last is of our own volition
The life we live and lead can only be experienced by us
Thus it is our responsibility to actualize and nurture the potential within our soul
As such, in order to purify the soil
We must do so with compassion and mindfulness
There is no true escape from the forceful grasp of socialization and conformity
The more we attempt to evade or forget the experiences within our lives
The further we stray from attaining inner tranquility
There is a delicate balance that exists between the past, present and future
We must be mindful of the past and future, but only live in the present