"The preservation of health is easier than the cure of the disease." - attributed to B. J. Palmer
"Pain is weakness leaving the body." - attributed to the U.S.M.C.
It’s not easy to grow old. You have to get used to walking more slowly, saying goodbye to who you were and greeting who you have become. It’s hard to celebrate a birthday. You have to learn to accept your new face, to walk proudly with your new body, to let go of shame, of prejudices and fears that come with age, and let happen whatever will happen, and let go of those who must leave, and let stay those who wish to stay. No, it’s not easy to grow old. You have to learn not to expect anything from anyone, to walk alone, to wake up alone, and not to recognize yourself every morning, the person you see in the mirror, and accept that it’s all over— life as well, and know how to say goodbye to those who leave and remember those who have already gone, and cry until you are emptied, until you are dried up inside, so that new smiles can grow, new hopes and new desires.
Alejandro Jodorowsky
Maybe forever was never about the people who came and went. Maybe it was about the moments that refused to fade, the laughter that still lingers, the memories that time cannot steal. We hold on to people, believing they will stay, but they don’t. Life moves them away, or we drift apart. Yet, the moments we shared remain untouched. They do not change, they do not leave. They stay, frozen in time, like echoes of a love that once was.
Perhaps that is what forever truly means. Not a promise between two souls, but the quiet presence of what once mattered. A song that brings back a familiar ache, a scent that carries us back to a lost moment, a face in the crowd that reminds us of someone we miss. People may leave, but the moments they gave us live on. Maybe that is the only kind of forever we were meant to have. A forever that does not stay, only lingers.
— Chamod Senevirathne