Remembrance, the circle unbroken

 relationships

whatever life is, it is for sure, profoundly, of relationship,

the drive toward larger wholes,

while the universe breaks down

the complex back into the simple,

rock into sand, the mountain back to the sea,

billions of years ago, though,

from out of swirling chemicals,

the cell came into being

and held against dissolution, 

cell connected to cell,

and the universe tried out plant and animal,

somewhere along the way cause and effect linked up

in the minds working to hold it all together,

consciousness wedded to connection,

pattern asserting itself on the world,

we are creatures of relationship,

we seek to understand and build,

at our best, we know that the other and our self

can become one, a larger whole,

in the middle of a Friends Meeting for Worship,

a meeting devoted to remembrance

of students, staff, and Board

who were with us, and now aren’t,

a woman spoke quietly, earnestly, lovingly, of relationship:

reminding us of the connection of child with child,

child with parent, the web of adults 

working together to build and maintain a school,

despite the dissolution the universe waves at our towers of sand,

the doubt that undermines the hope,

the fear that the center cannot hold,

that we will let down our part in the building

and join in the sundering,

I listened to her,

and I thought about the pictures

of those gone from the physical world,

yet still connected to us in our hearts,

the circle unbroken

for we hold the relationships in our heart, in our soul

by Henry H. Walker

November 2, ‘20