skyward by brookeshaden Everything in our lives comes and goes. The going leaves holes, but those holes become spaces where new things can settle. What was once so true and real and present will eventually leave us. What feels like forever is only a moment. The trick is - we don't need to replace those things we miss so that there's something to bury the loss. We need only accumulate new experiences to sit alongside the old, making every link of the fabric of your tapestry stronger. As I prepare to say goodbye to Coco, the thought alone crushes me. My heart constricts, I can't breathe. I want to be hers forever, but I got the call she's moving on soon. There will be a hole in me where she fit perfectly. Life is the continual practice of welcoming and letting go. Breathing in and breathing out. The breath that goes out isn't the same one that goes in, but part of it remains. And so will she, and so I will I - never the same, but made more whole, more complete. How much richer my life is for being open to pain for the sake of beauty. "Skyward", self-portrait, February 2021 Available as limited edition prints: 10x10", 20x20", and 40x40" Contact: www.brookeshaden.com/prints https://flic.kr/p/2kFg8to
