Seven

The news that truly shocks, is the empty, empty page...                    
 Peter Gabriel, I Grieve


In the Bible the number seven signifies completion:
God created the world in six days and on the seventh he rested
Jacob worked for Laban for seven years to earn the woman he loved
(and then another seven for the woman he really wanted)
We are supposed to forgive, seventy times seven
(which really means as many times as it takes).


But seven doesn't complete some things.


Seven doesn't take away the presence of an absence.


In fact, seven years of things you missed makes it seem that much worse.


All the memories of the last seven years would have been better with you in them.


Seven doesn't seem perfect, it just seems like a lifetime,

which it has been for Caitlyn,


the niece you never met,


who was born a month after you left.


I'm still a little angry, I'm still a little sad,


But mostly I just miss you a lot.

Maybe the next seven will be easier...

...probably not.