THE SHIP (Author unknown)
I am standing upon the seashore, a ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean.
She is an object of beauty and strength, and I stand and watch her until at length she is only a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky meet and mingle with each other. Then someone at my side exclaims, “There, she’s gone!”
GONE WHERE? Gone from my sight, that is all. She is just as large in hull and mast and spar as she was when she left my side- and just as able to bear her load of living freight to the place of her destination. Her diminished size is in me, not in her.
AND JUST AT THAT MOMENT when someone at my side says, “She’s gone” there are other eyes watching for her coming and other voices ready to take up the glad shout, There she comes!
AND THAT IS DYING.
Because we see only one side of the experience, we are sorrowful as we watch the ship carrying our beloved into the horizon. We suffer a personal loss, but consider this, To those awaiting her arrival, it is a gain.