Train Dreams

Love, loss, grief, complex trauma, loneliness, companionship. Devastatingly beautiful exposure of the human experience. “You hear that? Beautiful, ain’t it? Just beautiful.” “What is Arn?” “All of it. Every bit of it.” “But no, I wasn’t here. And not when I should’ve been, I guess. And not when they needed me the most. I hear them sometimes out there in the woods just talking and laughing. Yeah. I don’t even want to turn my head because I’m afraid that I’ll scare them away. So I just listen until they fade away somewhere else. Wherever those things go.” I think that it took him a lifetime to process the grief and trauma of losing his family. Through dreams, visions, shared grief with safe people, and learning to find joy and peace in life again. Ending with flying free in the air like only the birds do and becoming one with nature again— a cruel force that both destroys yet gives beautiful life.  As a meditation and prayer for lent: Lord, you have made us from ash and dust, and to ash and dust we shall return. Help us recognize the glorious gift that is death and rebirth. Help us become born again and baptized in your grace. Amen. “Hey, you’d better hold onto something.” I love my antidepressants.