Blog – 21 Lessons learnt from Loss

The Train of Life

Day 6 of 21

06 May 2022

When our mum left seven years ago, me and my sisters gained comfort in reading poems, posts and books about loss. It was like those who had written these beautiful pieces understood what we were going through.

My sister reminded me of this beautiful poem which really resonated with us and still does.

Train of Life, By Jean d’Ormesson

At birth, we boarded the train of life and met our parents ,and we believed that they would always travel by our side.

However, at some station, our parents would step down from the train, leaving us on life’s journey alone.

As time goes by, some significant people will board the train: siblings, other children, friends, and even the love of our life. Many will step down and leave a permanent vacuum. Others will go so unnoticed that we won’t realize that they vacated their seats!

This train ride has been a mixture of joy, sorrow, fantasy, expectations, hellos, goodbyes, and farewells.

A successful journey consists of having a good relationship with all passengers, requiring that we give the best of ourselves. The mystery that prevails is that we do not know at which station we ourselves will step down. Thus, we must try to travel along the track of life in the best possible way – loving, forgiving, giving and sharing.

When the time comes for us to step down and leave our seat empty we should leave behind beautiful memories for those who continue to travel on the train of life.

Let’s remember to thank our Creator for giving us life to participate in this journey. I close by thanking you for being one of the passengers on my train!

The author has written this so beautifully. We would like to share our gratitude with the author, thank you.