Some nights, when I cannnot escape the voices that ricochet off the walls of my mind, I lay in the grass. It’s cool, soft blades seem to heal my scared body better than any medicine. They are better any bed. The scilence is so prominent it’s like I’m underwater, but instead of fighting for air I’m finally able to breath. I can hear the trees, and I listen to the soft battle of their leaves in the breeze.

The trees are old, so very old. They were here in the before and will be here in the after. I take comfort in that thought. That I am simply a speck of cosmic dust in the vast beyond of the universe. I have drifted, drifted, and soon I will drift again. The end is never something to fear, it’s something to embrace, to await. Feelings of grief, missing, longing, love, excitement, joy, they’re all feelings we have been granted. Whether they tear us apart, fill us up, or put us back together again, it is a gift to feel. To care so deeply that it hurts.

And when we rejoin the stars, it won’t be bad. No, it won’t be bad at all. Because you won’t just drift, you’ll dance. Dance through the rings of space and time, remembering the feelings you’ve been gifted. Remembering the life you’ve gotten to live.