Over the weekend, my brother and his family came to visit.
We are very lucky to live within close proximity of one another. The arrival of the cousins is always a highly anticipated event, yet when they come through the door there is such a sense of familiarity and belonging it hardly creates a ripple. It hardly feels as if anything has changed.
As if by natural selection, they fall into combinations and clusters, pairing off and scurrying outside, upstairs, into the kitchen to ask for something to eat. There is no mistaking the individuality of each child, yet at the same time, how very alike they seem!
Watching them is like catching flashes of long ago~a smile, a sideways glance~their tendencies and mannerisms jog the memory of my childhood over and over again.
It's something to think about~how the future echoes the past, how love carries onward leaving an intricate pattern in its wake. How none of this comes easily, making it somehow more deeply beautiful. How all these things have come together in this moment, this moment which grounds and reassures me when I think of this new generation and how it will carry on.