Aged

Is there anything that doesn’t become bittersweet?

Joyous times, shared with love and cherished companions; we think they’ll last forever.

We tell each other, “we’ll come back again next time! I can’t wait to do this again!”

Perhaps we actually do so. For a time. But someday will be the last.

And then it is gone. Leaving the hole of its passing within us. The ache of its lack.

We’ve had the sweet. This is the bitter part.

But wait, you youths desperately clasping at these strands that slip away. There is more to come.

Young, we yearn for the sweet things. We gorge on sugar and endless summers of play.

Coffee? Scotch? Dark chocolate? What are these things? Yuck!

These are the acquired tastes of adulthood. Of an aged palate, matured to appreciate the bitterness.

Wait a while longer, youth, and the two parts come together. Not pure sweetness, nor the sharp bitterness of its passing; but both melded together.

Aged, we can blend the sweet and the bitter. Reflect on the whole and enjoy it all in a way we never could before.

Reflect on times past. The sweet now tinged with bitterness, and the bitterness of the past aged to mellowness within our cask.

Here we may sip the bittersweet drink of our past and look forward to what is still to come.

Knowing that too shall be blended in with the rest.

Until we are no more.