Because I could not stop for Death...

I think the down-side to being a fairly thoughtful individual is that sometimes you cannot stop thinking, particularly about things over which you have no control. Lately, my obsessions have run to the things I cannot change: graduation, growing up, growing old, death. I know I'm not alone in these considerations, but it is still depressing to think of this life that I am learning to love so much ending, even if it is not a pressing concern presently.

I've also discovered a new love recently: Khalil Gibran. We read some of his work in a literature class and I adore him, although the poet in me is ashamed to admit that despite his apparent fame (Wikipedia claims that he is the world's third best-selling poet after Shakespeare and Lao-Tse) I had never heard of him before I read his work in class. But here is a portion of "On Death," which encourages me:

If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life.
For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.
In the depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond;
And like seeds dreaming beneath the snow your heart dreams of spring.
Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.

I love this. I am certainly a dreamer of dreams, though far less a music-maker, and I like to think that maybe those dreams are worth something. Gibran seems to think so. I don't imagine I'll ever stop wondering what it will be like to be old, to be different, to die; but I won't let it keep me from loving life as it is, at this moment. Perhaps the two will even coalesce someday, and I will come to think of what comes next as another great adventure.