Forevermore (The Rebirth)

Forevermore

With beaming smile I stand, with outstretched arms I await.

At long last, I greet you again, old friend. 

My confidant when nobody listened, my deepest insights, my pride and joy, my light in the darkest of abysses, I have returned. 

What news, old friend? 

Have you missed me?

No, that is not the right question to ask. You frown at my attempt to ask the blatantly obvious. 

How long have you missed me?

Those feelings of guilt; bleak, insidious and crawling, yet taint even the joyous of occasions. 

Yet they are feelings well deserved, and I must endure them, even today. 

For I have done you wrong. 

When the nights were loneliest, when the days felt emptiest, as I placed the quivering pen upon the blank paper and wrote hesitantly, I felt you soar within me. 

A surge of memories, bittersweet emotions and insights, that only you could ever stir within me. 

A trickle of water, which in itself could erode solid rock over time, slowly but steadily increasing in intensity, faster and faster. 

The trickle becomes a stream, the stream becomes a torrent. 

And when you have truly spread your wings and risen within me, I feel as though nothing can stand in my way, that I can never be denied. All manners of negative thought, cast aside in the moment, as a brand new idea takes root and sprouts, rising into the heavens to find its rightful place. 

And yet, despite all of this, I left you.

I left you because I felt that I had failed you. 

I left you because I was weak, and let self doubt claim the day. 

Yet you never discouraged me, but told me instead to find another way. 

And now?

Now I have. 

I have found my way back to you. It's been a long journey, through pain and suffering, and finally I have realized the simple truth. 

I was a fool to think I could live without you. 

Yet even fools have insight from time to time. 

Greetings, old friend. I have returned. I am truly sorry for what I have done, and nothing I can do will ever change that. 

But for now and forevermore, we shall never part. 

This I promise you.