strings

      On my way to visit with cousins, thoughts turned to the connections in our lives, strings to all the people we are tied to the minute we are born. First is our parents, grand-parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins to name the closest.  All those have connections to friends and neighbors that we are then tied to.

      If we are taken to Sunday School, we meet children who become our friends for life, attaching strings between us, which ties us to their families.  That is where I met a little girl who is still attached to me by the string that was tied at our first meeting, who I tease by calling her my 'oldest' friend, as she does me. She is a very loving, compassionate person caring for her Mother, possessing her own snapped strings.

      Many more strings develop when we enter grade school and immediately acquire a 'best friend'; for the younger set, it is a BFF.  I was blessed to be able to stay in the same school system from first grade to high school graduation, strengthing the bond between friends and their families. My school friend ,Judy, and I spent every minute we could together with me being at her house as much as I was mine, double dating whenever  possible and having some close calls with trouble  few times. For years she lived away from here, leaving gaps where we didn't see each other but when we did , it was as if no time had elapsed at all.  The string between us snapped in December a couple of years ago, leaving a gap where her string had been for so long.  One thing about these strings, you can't pick them up and tie them on someone else for when they are woven, it is for that person alone, and left dangling until your own string snaps.

      When you marry, or co-habitate as the custom is now, more strings are added, as your children come they tie on their own strings.  Everyone you have a sustained relationship with ties on a string,at work, in the neighborhood, your children's friends and church affiliation. 

      These strings spread wider and wider, creating more and more.  Then we look behind us at the strings that were in tied to us at our birth. Over time the strings have snapped one by one with each death or loss of each person.  Our grand-parents and parents will pass away, as will aunts, uncles, and cousins, etc, leaving their own dangling strings for us to grieve for a time.

      Then a day will come when the last string snaps and all are gone from behind us.  Turn back to the strings coming from you, what do you see?  Strings spreading out like the fan that had come from your parents to you, which in turn, lead to more strings.  We do see some snapped strings there, friends who are no longer with us, children that didn't make it to create their own strings, and some who snapped the string deliberately. Possibly there are some we snapped to break away from people who weren't good for us. 

      Many people search for their lineage, adoptees for birth parents, some for a friend or classmate on Facebook, or go to family reunions. All are looking for or strengthing lost or fraying strings. 

       For the ones of mine that have snapped, I can look at the dangling strings and recall the memories that they represent and the people that were once tied to them that will be renewed when we meet again in Heaven.