i hope my words are strange and wondrous,

like kisses that quiet all things superfluous,

so that we can all stop and

listen

signaling the end of another year since certain things.

last year this time you weighed heavy on my heart,

this year seems no different, except i'm letting go.

and in my heart echoes

and i've discovered that solitude is a space,

for the strong and the weak alike.

but only the earnest find peace in this place,

where loneliness is no longer a symptom of being alone.

life unfolds in its way,

and love blooms and it fades,

but the heart must never cease to beat,

for in its beating i hear "i love"

and i'll spend my whole life, trying to answer it.

and there will be peace,

where there is grace and mercy.

and at the cross, i lay this week.

and all my life, every day, help me to answer

its you.

i love. i love. i love you first, and always, and only, and most.

in faith, in hope, in trust, in peace.

i will follow.

there is nothing really to say,

recaps are drab and dreary,

the beauty lies in the temporal quality of the moment,

in its instant existing and forever remembering

and these words aren't said, they're sung

in the spirit of holding on to the essence.

as i paint the shadows of what was with my fingers in

sound and in meaning and in

solitude.

one day these will be stories.

but today, these are songs.