Wrinkles in Life’s Face

On love and loss.

“Consolation” by Edvard Munch, 1894

Light rain-drops fall and wrinkle the sea,
Then vanish, and die utterly.
One would not know that rain-drops fell
If the round sea-wrinkles did not tell.

So souls come down and wrinkle life
And vanish in the flesh-sea strife.
One might not know that souls had place
Were't not for the wrinkles in life's face. 

—Sidney Lanier, “Souls and Rain-Drops”

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I recently learned that a friend of mine lost a child. It’s a pain I can’t begin to fathom. Mothers and fathers are not meant to bury their children. It is against the natural order of things.