A Happy Ending

Standing on the edge of the water under the stars in front of the lake house for the last time, I am transported.  Time in its memorial waves collide and I am at once in the moment and in the past nights sitting on or by this water under these stars.  I hear as if an echo the laughter, the singing, the silence, my wishes on the stars that have fallen, my dreams and prayers to the One who hung the stars in place.

"Trust in Me," I hear the breath of Beauty on the breeze whisper in my ear, "and I will grant you the desires of your heart." 

Twenty five years of learning how to trust collide in this one moment when he puts his arms around me, presses his lips to my ear, wipes away my tears with his hands.  All I ever wanted was to share this beauty with a man who cared, and here, in the last possible moment--in God's perfect timing--I am.

The bitterness of goodbye mixes with the sweetness of a dream come true.  I hold the moment in my heart, my thanks inexpressible except in the mystery of the Eucharist, the thanksgiving.  I know that in the morning I must celebrate the Mass and give this gift back to God wrapped in gratitude.  And my heart aches with the knowledge that in the morning, this will all be over.

To close my eyes, to sleep, to wake and find it as all that and no more than it is--a dream.

I nearly choke on my tears, but he holds me closer and I look at this man beside me.  When I wake, this moment with the stars and the water in the place where my old soul found peace for so many summers will fade away, but this man will not.  My soul sighs and bitter sorrow becomes sweet joy.

My ending for this place, for this chapter of my life, is happy and more perfect than I could have ever imagined, but exactly as He planned all along:  "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11