Lingering Embers of a Farewell

Friendship is not all that we have;

We built our lives together,

For a short nevertheless important part of it. 

When human beings were made of clay, 

We worked together to gather wood to make a fire. 

A small ember that slowly, with great effort, grew to a roaring fire. 

In the light of that fire, we saw the flaws in each other. 

We helped one another fix the parts that were broken,

And accept the parts that weren't.

We sat around the fire, a fire that was part of us. 

We laughed. 

We cried. 

We danced. 

We slowly hardened into the people we were always meant to be. 

I wouldn't be so arrogant to claim 

That by the time we left that fire, 

One by one, 

We became the people that we were meant to be. 

But when we reach the next fire,

Surrounded by more people that we love,

They will feel the warmth of our past. 

They will see the twinkle in our eyes,

And they will know our fire too. 

We will never forget the impressions made on each other’s souls, by the people we love,

Because we have become parts of each other that are whole. 

Distance will not diminish the warmth of our fire,

And time will not extinguish it. 

Like it or not, you're our family and we are yours;

May we come to the same flame again someday.