With departures come enlightenment – with hurt comes awakening. Then you live your life, you step confidently, your mind is sharp, your force unyielding. You think you’re invincible, and that the world is yours for the taking if you would only try. You watch the sun’s descent with eyes wide open and heart ablaze, just working and toiling away at a future – while the moon serenades each footstep. Your heart and mind settles into a replete devotion. Nothing else is a possibility. You believe that everything will sort itself out once you have invested your all in the right place.

Then, just at that moment, one between a cacophony of familiarity and a step into the unknown, a string is pulled.

How do you stop your heart from skipping a beat?

How do you stop the sun’s descent? How do you catch the moon with but a net? How do you halt the relentless passing of time?

How do you reverse weakness? At a time when fortitude seemed like your strong suit, a mere presence unseats your self-appointed throne. A mere whisper – a delicate tug at the strings of fate – takes apart your apparent fortress; every ounce of pride removed with each insolent brick.

You suddenly remember – flashes of time and space unseen but present, a physical manifestation of the heart and mind; trapped in a room, a replica, of a life long gone and the effervescence of youth.

All in one place, gone without a trace.