"And So It Goes..."

Received news this morning that another long-time acquaintance has passed away. He was an artist, a painter of brilliance. Shocking. It's always shocking when someone dies. You hope they had days of joy and wonder, that they got to smell the roses, and laughed & basked under blue skies, and did the things they loved to do. I am reminded of the refrain that appears after every death in Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse-Five," - "And so it goes."  Maybe it's sort of a colorless, fatalistic musical phrase? It is the way of the world. Simple and true. We don't get choose when we arrive, or when we leave. All of our doing is in the in-between. Life. Best to live it as best we can, while we can. There are no promises. Just the moment to moment.