"And later as you go again"

After a semester filled with death, endings, goodbyes, and loss, I'm trying to accept that mourning and sadness are permissible, especially when physical distance complicates those feelings.

That's a mighty tall order.

I'm also trying to balance an acknowledgement that a lot of other people from various facets of my life are in similar mental spaces right now. I can't solely focus on my own sense of grief, but I am allowed to feel the grief when it pops up like an unexpected intruder at 5:30 a.m.

I don't know what else to say.

- "Ari's Song" by Nico, from The Marble Index (1968)