It Goes On

In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.

     Robert Frost 

The one thing that endures above everything else in this world, in this life, is love.  It never ends.  It is never taken away.  It is what goes on.  It is love that, ultimately, consistently overcomes and conquers all the brokenness, all the distress, all the disappointment, all the disease and all the death in this world.  When we feel as if we could break under the pain of regret, disillusionment, cynicism, discontentment, loss and grief, we can be reminded that love is the one thing in life that lives on and has the healing power to revive and renew us, restore and refresh us. 

We were reminded of that yesterday at the funeral for the man we shared about last week in the post,“There Comes a Time” .   It is love that will enable his family and closest friends to understand and accept his loss.

When you’re 75 years old, have been married for 57 years, and leave behind a wife, a mother, three children, five grandchildren, two great grandchildren, nieces and nephews and great friends who love you dearly, it’s hard to know just how those who love you will pick up the broken pieces and go on. 

He is certainly, deeply, profoundly missed.  But in love, his life will never end.  It will go on.  

It’s hard to accept that someone we love dearly has left this life, that everything is different now.  It’s hard to comprehend.  It is normal, natural, to think about his life and all its goodness, and to have a hard time making sense of it all.  To certainly be tired and confused and at terribly loose ends and so uncertain about the purpose of life and of death.  That is so natural to question. And that’s okay.  To question, to wonder, to ask, to implore, is very human.  There are no simple and easy answers at times like these.  The best answer, perhaps the only answer – maybe the only answer we need in times such as these – is just to rely on love to get us through.  To rely on the love that is still felt so strongly and profoundly today, to rely on the love of one another that is so meaningful today, is what we need to get through such devastating and distressing times.  That love that never ends is the best answer to embrace and hold tightly onto.  And maybe, just maybe, in time, little by little, moment by moment, that love will calm us, soothe us, wash over us, carry us, warm you and finally heal us and provide us with the answers and comfort and reassurance and peace we need.  That love is our best hope and that love never fails us or ends.

Life is, ultimately, simply about love – love that is meant to show us how to find peace and joy and hope, even in the darkest, most difficult of our days.    In dark seasons of our lives, we can find the light coming back and beginning to warm and brighten the world and our spirits.  And that light is love.  The love we hold.  The love we share.  The love we feel for one another. 

Today it is love that reminds us over and over again, how we are lifted up, carried us through.  We are reminded that nothing – no evil, no loss, no pain, no disappointment, no regret, no death – can ultimately separate us from love.  We are reminded today that love never ends.  And even in sad and difficult times, we can celebrate and give thanks for that. 

Life goes on because love goes on.  Love never ends.

Photo by gaspar zaldo on Unsplash