O Death, how aquatinted we have become.
How intertwined we have been.
How many people we find in common. One with another.
My first impression was to find you a most bitter and reviled enemy.
My first memories of you were fear and disgust, hatred and loathing of the deepest and most sincere kind.
Your overwhelming darkness, like a cold thick fog, black as the night sky enveloped my senses, my thoughts, my world.
Sorrow was all I had to give you, tears were all that I could spare.
Our relationship was always one sided.
You would simply steal away the light from my world regardless of age.
Rob me of future memories, taunt me with the unknown and ever-looming possibilities... of what could have been.
Irrespective of my situation or position. Disregarding all rhyme or reason, you would strike down those dear beloved family members and friends, changing my world making me start anew.
Though the older I have gotten, a most peculiar thing has happened.
My thoughts and feelings for you have changed oh so much, I ask myself if I am changing for the worse?
How is it my hate and loathing for you has dampened? Why is my outlook no longer the same?
I have realized you are as lonely and misunderstood as those loved ones that you rob.
You are not a hated enemy nor a threat at all. Simply a grand and noble part of God's plan.
A dear friend called to escort those dearest and most loved people of my life to the immortal worlds beyond.
It was never you who's darkness it was that I felt, or who's taunts I was assured were shot my way.
It was the earthly departing of my dear sweet family and friends.
The absence of their warmth and light. Their impact in my life that was now realized in their absence.
Illuminating the reality that I must now fill in their earthly void with the qualities and love that they had so carefully displayed to me.
O Death, how my love for you has grown.
How my sorrow has turned to thanks.
I only hope when my time is nigh, and it is me that you come calling for... We will embrace one another as old familiar friends.
That you might take me gently and peacefully to that great reunion that awaits me. Through the veil, to my long lost loved ones.
-Brett Smith (4/17/10)
copyright 2010
