bound

When it comes to the people I love, I hate using the past tense. I prefer is over was, are over were. The past tense implies that what something once was is finite and cemented, never to be altered or changed or improved. It leaves no room for growth. I don't like the idea of people I love simply passing through a phase of my life. Here one day and gone the next, rather than giving them the major role in the script of my life that they so rightfully deserve.

So I try not to.

People move on--literally and figuratively. Different people trod different paths. Someone you are side by side with one moment can be miles and miles away before you know it. But that doesn't--or at least it shouldn't--convert everything to the past tense. There is still a future. There is still a relationship to be had. It may be different from what you are used to, but it's evolving and living and beautiful.

Some dear friends of mine have just turned onto a different path. A path that is really the interstate system of the United States which took them far away from Crooked Ridge Court in Florence, Kentucky. Their almost constant presence in my life will be sorely missed, but it won't be forgotten. It won't be shoved into a box of what once was and stacked neatly in the closet. No member of that family will ever become somebody I used to know.

Many tears have been shed on my part over this change. But I wouldn't quite be me if that weren't the case. Though I'm sad to see them go and will certainly miss having a second family living a short walk away, I wish them the best in their new adventures. I am excited to see what the future has in store for them and how my future is going to intertwine with theirs, even from far away.

Because it will. Of that I am completely sure.