Shore to Shore

I listened to someone refer to his wife’s death in such a beautiful metaphor that I want to share it with you.

He compared being with his wife like being on an island. An island they both intimately knew. Each other’s thoughts and awareness of the other. Yes, there was the rest of the world, but the island is who they were. Until she died.

He said he knew that if he wanted to live he had to get off their island.

It was a difficult choice to make, but one to make nonetheless. So he finally got on his little boat and left their island. Letting the waves help him be carried further and further away. He said each morning he woke up, he would look for their island. He would see it everyday, as it was moving further and further into the distance. With each passing day turning near invisible in the distance. Then the day came when he woke up and looking for their island was not the first thing he did to start the day. Instead he started noticing all sorts of different islands all around him. As the day was ending, he remembered to look for their island, and he couldn’t see it anymore. He knew exactly where the island was located. He still knew every leaf and flower growing on it. He could still feel his way blindly around their island and remember everything. But it was not within his sight anymore.

Then he began setting foot on other islands. Reacquainting himself with old friends and making new ones. He was able to continue living his life by getting off their island, sharing his life by traveling shore to shore to connect with other islands. Knowing that their island really didn’t exist anymore, at least not in any way, shape or form the way it did when they both lived on it. Only in his memory was it still the same.

It doesn’t take death to understand that islands are not our permanent place. They are shared spaces between one another to provide the nurturance it takes for one another’s growth and development. Each island holding its own beauty with the different seeds and intentions planted by their inhabitants.

https://youtu.be/_58AnhnbIgI