A Thought Upon the End of Childhood

(This is one of my favorite poems. I wrote this when I had some small insight into life and what it means.)

Time.
Time is strange.
Time is strange because it picks you up and spins you around and places you in a place you have never been before.
When you finally stop and look around everything is changed.
Everything is changed and you don't understand at what you are looking.
You don't understand what is in the future.
You don't understand which way the future is.
It could be the most glorious place you will ever go.
It could be the most painful place you will ever go.
It could be the most scariest place you will ever go.
It may be the most peaceful place you will ever go.
Some may even never make it to any place.
When time finally is through with spinning you around it pauses.
It pauses so that you can catch your breath.
It pauses because it knows you.
It pauses because it controls you.
The brief pause is like a shallow pool, a place that water slows down to cleanse itself before the inevitable journey to the ocean.
It is at these moments that one has control of his destiny, his fate.
It is at these moments that man must look about him, must look not only in front of him, one must look behind to see where he has been.
In this reflection, one has noticed the years have passed and life has changed.
Life has changed.
There is no escaping the pauses like there is no escaping the coming and rushing of time.
It is at this time that one must confront the past with the present with the future.
Friendships, hatreds, loved ones and enemies all are blended together and then are cleansed.
They, the impurities in the flow of time, are pulled toward the bottom of the shallow pool to sit, to sit and remain forever.
Time passes.
Life has changed.
It is only a short pause in the calm depths of the pool.
The calm depths of the pool caused be some uncontrollable force that time could not even prevent.
Like magnets one is drawn toward the irregularity.
An irregularity that will control one like it does the water.
The forces changes a man forever but he will not know what has occurred.
Time has spun him about until he finds another pool in which to rest.
In these pools, he learns.
He learns about the river.
He learns about the rocks.
He learns about the pools of the past.
He learns about himself.
When one finally reaches the ocean and time has done all it can, one understands all that has transpired.
He is in the ultimate pool.
He is the pool of understanding.
He can now see the entire river and all that it contains.
There is no regret.
There is no pain.
There is no uncertainty.
There is a new life.
There is a new life with others that have also completed the journey.
Some have completed the same journey.
Most have completed a different.
Some are very similar.
Most are very different.
But, all of them share the same thing that you do.
All understand.
All understand what has happened.
All understand that time passes and life changes.
Time passes.
Life changes.