to live in this world

you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it

against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes
to let it go,
to let it go

Mary Oliver – In Blackwater Woods

I sometimes need to be reminded that being alive means that things change. That the people, places, and things I love will not be in my life forever. Their mortality should not keep me from loving them. I must love them all the more, “knowing [my] own life depends on it.”  And when their time is at an end, I must “let it go.”

This is so hard. So hard. So painful. But it is essential, for to never change, to never leave, to never die, is not to live. For only in living can we find joy. Only in living can we find freedom. Only in living can we find love. Let us live well, let us love well, and let us “let it go” well.

Amen, and Blessed Be.

A meditation for December 20, 2012.