Growing Up & Growing Apart

I think I know how Jo March felt in Little Women,
watching her sisters leave home, taking their memories with them.
She wanted everything to stay the same, for the family to stay together.
But nothing ever stays the same. Life can change as quickly as the weather.
Now her sisters have their own lives to live, there doesn’t seem to be as much room for her,
though they still talk and see each other, it’s just not the same, of that she is sure.
A relationship that once felt so close, now seems to be more distant,
she walks down the hall to find her sister in her room, but she isn’t,
it isn’t her room anymore, what was once full of things is now empty.
the room that once held a life now holds only memories, but of those there are plenty.
 
Is this what life is all about?
Growing up and moving out?
Growing apart and gaining distance?
Navigating relationships that can change in an instance?
How can people so close grow so far apart?
How do we handle this without losing heart?
It seems that the only thing that is constant is change itself,
and seasons of life just a collection of books placed, one by one, on a shelf.

                                                                                                  ~ Liz Austin 2019