The pain ebbs and flows like irregular waves over jagged rocks. Swelling and receding, taking on more and more power before eventually depositing its remnants in the cracks and holes formed with the passing of time. There is no escaping the pain; it is inevitable, yet it is also transient and vincible. The trick is to find strength and the belief that what has been beaten and overcome once can and will be again. Nothing is permanent. The scars tell the story of the pain that once took hold, they are the seams that hold back the brutal tide that rages below the surface, ever aching to break free. Those waves will strike you again, and the fear... the fear is the worst. Fear of helplessness. Fear of loneliness. Fear of hopelessness. Fear of weakness. The skin cracks and splinters. And the weight of everything, every fucking thing, pounds in your chest, crushing you from inside. It consumes you. Almost. But not quite. There is a chink of light, like blazing sunshine clawing its way through a gap in the blinds. There is the scent of the sea, the song of the birds. They sing of hope, of innocence and good. There is good, there is strength, there is love. Wounds heal, tides subside, days pass and time flies.

That stranger in the mirror

Oh, that’s you.

With the passage of time...

Will you still dream of me when you are old? When you have lived your life and seen the world? When you have experienced love and loved in return with everything you have in your heart? Will I still feature in the dream-reel? Will you remember our time? Our kisses? Our laughter? Will you wonder where I am? How I am? Who I’m with? What I’ve achieved? Who I’ve hurt? Will there be days when you forget who you were? What your dreams were? Where you wanted to be? Will you wonder how life might have been different? Will you feel regret? Bitterness? Gladness? Shame? Will ever wish you could turn back time? Will you ever hope things still might turn out differently? Will you still remember that I loved you? Will you still remember that you loved me? Will you still remember what could have been?