A Little Note From The Empire: I Love My Ending

I've heard the "wise ones" say, there is nowhere I end and you begin.

But I don't know...

I like my end; I like knowing it's there.

It's almost my favorite place to be—the line between you and me.

I don't mind meeting you there, where I end and you end too.

We can meet on the edge of ourselves and celebrate the joys of being, but please... don't cross into me.

My friendly neighbor, I'll wave to you from my center and enjoy the scent of the roses growing in your garden that wafts my way every once in a while.

But they look prettiest from afar.

Like a painted scene within its frame, the many different strokes I see all creating their own world in harmony.

I wouldn't want to paint my colors on your masterpiece. You look so busy making it so.

I've noticed.

And it looks most beautiful to me from here.

From here, where I paint mountains that surround me for you to dream of climbing and for me to conquer.

I cast my strokes about in ways that utterly please me most, and smiles are quick to reach.

But if I were to have no end, might my favorite pieces splash about into another, forever lost in a different world?

How could I retrieve them?

The years it might take to separate colors blended in disarray.

Here, some of you; here, some of me, one by one...

Such a task would be a thief of the precious time we'd otherwise spend crafting our magical worlds.

What a terrible waste!

So I'll craft me an end, a frame, a place for you to be you and me to be me.

And I will love you that much more.

And maybe we'll be the wisest ones of all.