This weekend was thought provoking on the subject of time and life. Jody and I took another seven hour roadtrip up to Oklahoma for two reasons: to see her newly arrived niece and nephew, boy and girl twins who were born last week, and to attend her ten-year high school reunion. They’re the first grandkids in the family and everyone is excited to have them. It’s been a long time since I have seen a newborn and I forgot that babies don’t always start out chubby, but can actually be so thin and fragile looking. It’s so strange seeing a tiny little person who is just learning how to focus their eyes and experience the world for the first time with no preconceptions about their experiences. It’s strange to think that we all started this way, from a single cell to a tiny helpless infant to a full-grown adult and then into senescence. We are fleshy flowers, reaching up into bloom, then to fruition, and then shrinking with age as we prepare for the next season’s harvest.
It’s not an entirely unpleasant thought to know you play some role in this chain.
