Today, another friend of mine got married. A friend once had a special portion in my days, years ago.

There was an awkward feeling when I entered the parking ground. Her name was written bold under the sign, paired with the name of a man I hadn’t known.

Even more weirder when I walked into the reception building. Between the guests coming back and forth, I saw her far ahead. In the wedding dais, standing next to a man who becomes her husband. She smiled happily. The smile I haven’t seen for few years, when we were together graduated from high school…

The smile used to always present in the back chair. The smile always adorned the moment we finished our school assignments together. The smile accompanied me during the lunch, and the smile that hadn’t faded away when the exhausting day of school was over. The smile that made me fall in love.

The smile that transformed boring days into colorful seconds. The smile I was looking forward every single day. The smile which image took me to peaceful sleep every night. The smile I was eargerly waiting when the holiday came. The smile that made me dawdled.

The smile I wanted to own for myself, not to be shared with others. The smile that made me weak, when she presented it to another guy. The smile that drowned me in prolonged pain, when she faded away from my life. When we took different path for ourselves.

… and today, I saw her smiling again. Smiling for the man who had made a sacred oath to live life with her. Today I saw her standing next to a man in her wedding day. And me, standing between the crowd, is happy for her too.

***

Isn’t life amazing?

Our encounter with others happened by itself, without any plans. We simply walk our own labyrinth of life. And during such journey we encounter others. Many of them encounter us only in a point of life, yet not few of them eventually ventured along with us. Our path merged into one with theirs. And few of them really comforted us, that we started thinking about keep going with them, in one way. Forever.

Yet, every companionship always ends with farewell. There is always a time when we arrive in an intersection, where the ones who had ventured with us all along decide to take the different path from us. We all return to our own labyrinth of life. Our path and again branches and separates from theirs. And so, just like encounter, separation happens by itself, without any plans.

Thus life goes on. People come, maybe venture along for some times, before eventually go again. No companionship is eternal, for every soul makes his own way in the face of the Earth. It is part of nature that they come and go. And so, companionship and separation are simply planless coincidence. Even they are just illusions. Because, just like all water flows to the ocean, all path of life comes into The One Source, The One Beginning and End, The One Absolute Unity…

Under the bright sun and the thick leaves shading the road, my mind ventured, contemplating about that friend of mine. She had decided to tie a promise to walk along with a man. To venture life with him all the times. While me, alone, in the middle of vast, different road. Yet this is my way. My way back home to The One.