My Heart Must Leave

Oh can you see beyond the valley,

There lies a land waiting for me,

Do you know why summer tarries,

To bring us back, 

Down by the sea.

Fare ye well my old companions,

Fare ye well my heart must leave,

And where'er I go, always remember,

The path we wandered,

Down by the sea.

If I die before I see you,

I pray you'll know his heart is true,

Know the strength of his gentle voice,

As he whispers,

Down by the sea.

This poem doesn't make as much sense now that summer is upon us here in New Zealand.  It would be better read in the dead of winter, when all is wet and miserable.

It was written in spring last year, I was leaving the city I had lived in for 10 years to travel south 7 hours and live and work in another city that I knew very little about.  I had spent my entire life within a two hour radius and now I was to go, with no idea about when, or if, I would ever return.

There comes a time when you must say goodbye yet I don't think we are made to say goodbye.  See you later, yes, but not goodbye.  Not, I may never see you again, have a good life.  Especially to people and places that have meant so much to you, places that you have been broken by, shaped by, loved by.

Yet, I can look back now on the time that I spent away and I am so glad I did leave.  I needed to change. I needed to see another part of the country, to go somewhere where hardly anyone knew my name, and to be able to step into the new me that had been forged by the grace of God during my time back in the city that had been home.