Ripples N Reflections

Prompt: In Transit

Train stations, airport terminals, subway stops: soulless spaces full of distracted, stressed zombies, or magical sets for fleeting, interlocking human stories?

I have traveled extensively and to me, very often these “soulless” spaces mark the very epitome of “soulfulness”. Often, so very often, it is to bid goodbye to a station, a place that holds fond memories – of friendships made and sometimes broken…..of bonds created out of nothing and yet so strong that it is unfathomable to think that they may no longer be a part of you once you leave.

So often, a quick and brisk handshake hides more than it reveals.. knowing that a longer good bye, a hug or a smile may end up allowing a tear to escape. Afraid that the Goodbye might never be “Till we meet again”!

Our lives are interspersed with frequent transfers and changes in patterns of day to day life. Our kids are used to leaving those carefully nurtured relationships behind and making new ones all over again in the new station. Yet as we leave each station, there are always a select few, that become a part of us, our lives and our thoughts.  Once long ago as a young bride, an older friend had remarked…if you can make a friend for life in each station that you go to, consider yourself blessed. I realise the wisdom of those words today.

The goodbyes that were said earlier at railway stations and now increasingly at airports, are always with the knowledge that we are leaving a part of our life behind.. sometimes never to resume again. 

And yet these same “soulless”spots are witness to soulful reconnoiters, when we suddenly find an old friend unexpectedly ! I have had to meet friends after years and often wondered how it would turn out… and find to my delight, that we could just take off from where we left off . the intervening years may never have been!

To part, is sweet sorrow, indeed – but then ever so often these places of “in transit” give us the sweet happiness of meeting our loved ones again!

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/in-transit/