I am standing on the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to

the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty

and strength. I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck

of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.

Someone at my side says, "There, she is gone!" Gone where? Gone from my

sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she

was when she left my side and she is just as able to bear her load of living

freight to her destined port. Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And

just at the moment when someone at my side says, "There, she is gone!",

there are other eyes watching her coming and other voices ready to take up

the glad shout, "Here she comes!" And that is dying. (Henry Van Dyke)