Meetings and Partings

She caught my attention, not so much because she seamed out of place, but more the fact that her eyes were taking in all that was going on around her.  She seamed so frail, sitting there waiting on her flight, alone, again watching the scene unfold before her as if she were watching some long ago movie.  As I watched, her face would constantly change expressions, a smile, a frown, an inquisitive glance, a fleeting smirk as if being caught doing something mischievous. 

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 I was enthralled as I watched her. I wondered what she was thinking, what ghost of a full life ebbed and flowed behind her weathered brow. 

 When she smiled, was she thinking of her youth, of a romance long ago, or a recent meeting with friends.  When she frowned, was she remembering all the ones that she had loved and now have gone ahead.  When she smirked, was it the thoughts of childish pranks that filled long ago summer afternoons that still seamed like only yesterday in her mind, the scents and colors still vivid and new. 

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All these emotions played out on her face as she saw the many people coming and going, at this moment in time, their lives being weaved into the fabric of all the others. I often think about how we are, all of us, a compilation of the meetings and partings that are our lives. We all both give a piece of ourselves, and take a piece of others in those meetings. Maybe that's why, when we reconnect with those friends we have not seen in a long time it feels like a part of us has come home, we are once again more complete. And maybe that's also why we yearn to be with those we have not seen in many years, for a part of our being, a part of us, is missing. 

 

So my thoughts go back to her. The blessings of a long life must be, and with my own age I'm learning this, that you have so many others that are part of the quilt that is you. But, if that's true and I believe it is, then it is also its curse as many parts of the quilt get tattered torn my those partings.

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I glanced back at her and her eyes met mine. I smiled and she smiled back at me. I tend to over think things like this but in that moment she became part of my life, my quilt, and I hers. 

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To all of you who are part of me, I thank you for helping me become who I am. And it is my hope that the part of me that is in all of you at least makes you smile. 

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© 2022 Copyright by Frank De Armas