Time Folds In

As a kid I spent hours and hours on this old dock watching the things that lived in the water underneath it. At times I'd scoop up those things with a minnow trap, small net, or even my bare hands.

I remember a certain satisfaction and confidence when I successfully picked up a crab without getting pinched, or caught a fish that I could put in the tank to watch.

I know some of those small critters I handled didn't make it. In some ways I still feel bad about that, but I also learned so much and developed a deep appreciation for the interconnectedness of the world and my actions in it.

This past weekend I watched my kids and nieces do the exact same thing on that dock. And I know my mom and uncles did the same years before me. So much has changed in the ecosystem and the world around, but on that dock time folds in on itself.

I saw their hesitancy evolve into confidence, I saw their eyes refine focus and notice things differently, I saw them slow down and wonder.

I saw myself and my siblings and my cousins and my mom and my uncles and all the others before us who were and are connected to this place. I saw the past and the future.

But most of all I saw this moment where their pure joy was all encompassing. And I remembered why these connections matter even if we lose ourselves from time to time.