Dear World Changer,

Today, I woke up from a wonderful dream and am left with the harsh, blinding reality of our situation. This dream is one that I have held onto for years, and it finally looked like it just might be the real deal. But the colors were too bright, the people singing and dancing in my mind’s eye, were too cheerful, too beautiful, and too naive to be real. The scene had been perfectly set, but it was all just too perfect.

You were my dream. One day, you walked into my life and everything changed. All the hopes and hobbies left to collect dust in a neglected pile were awakened and reinvigorated by your smile. All the nightmares and shadows lurking around every corner, beckoning to come back home with them, were sent packing with your warm embrace. And the sun was shining twice as bright, the birds were singing twice as merrily, and the wind danced lightly across the world as if to announce my newfound spring.

Those days were perfect too. I wondered how anything could be this perfect and this easy without a hidden skeleton curled up behind a closed door, but I never found one. Your doors were left open and so were mine. You welcomed me into your world and I did the same for you, and the world seemed like a whole new place for me.

But, slowly, then all at once, the perfect days were gone. Either I got busy, or you got busy, or plans had to be postponed, or plans got canceled altogether because we just couldn’t connect. I’d plan one thing and you’d plan another, you’d try and be as present as you could and I would need more. Soon, I stopped seeing you, you stopped calling me, and we just plain stopped.

And I look back on those perfect days and that perfect dream and all I can reckon from the mess that remains is that some of the best people who walk in and out of our lives were always meant to be temporary. You were a hurricane. You came swiftly, you wiped everything clean, you cleared the skies and cleansed the earth, and before I was ready, you had to leave. As I sat in the eye of the storm, seeing the peace and clarity that you bring, I forgot to look at the howling winds, surging waters, and debris that was tormenting your world. You kept me close so that I didn’t have to see the dark side of you, and I was happy to let that be true.

Now, you need to go, and there is nothing I can do to stop it, and I will never be the same. But that’s why you came. You came to awaken a sleeping giant and refresh the wild side of me. You came to bring life in the midst of chaos and destruction, and you stayed as long as you could because you loved me.

So, as you try and find a way to tell me that “It’s me, it’s not you” or to tell me that “It just didn’t work out the way we thought it would,” please let me say something to you here and now.

It’s okay. I hope that you find the peace that you are looking for, and I really do hope the best for you. And I know that that isn’t me. And that’s okay.

Thank you for the time that you gave me, the love that you showed me, and the strength that you have modeled for me.

With a true understanding of where we stand in the world, I bid you adieu. Maybe one day we will happen upon each other’s happily little lives; but in case that doesn’t happen, live well my friend and it’s going to be alright.

Truly,

Your soon-to-be Long Lost Friend