Exile

© O. Douglas Jennings. All rights reserved.

 

No one ever told me specifically that during my passage through life, I would inevitably become an exile. Maybe not an exile in the literal sense but in a way that would cause real feelings of loss nonetheless. It involves realization that I can never go back nor return to the days of innocence and trust; to the relationships of my youth and the carefree state of so many options.

As the distance from the past becomes greater, so does the feeling of being separated from it increase. And I am forced to console myself like Dante who, while an exile in Rome from his hometown of Florence, decided to create and harness his imagination to write The Divine Comedy. Or like the Apostle John, who, while in exile on the Isle of Patmos, opened his spirit to Revelations from the Savior. Maybe the inevitable exile we all must endure is actually a blessing. It spurs us to look at opportunities around us and to a future, most secure, homecoming.