Fault Lines

Earthquakes!

Tornadoes!

Forest Fires!

Disasters all!

Homes and hearts torn asunder leaving precious things lost and scattered.

I’ve seen them all from a distance, and fortunately have never met one face to face.

And I’ve been afraid, or sometimes just concerned ~ 

aware of the destruction wrought on so many.

For a pleasant half hour, I gazed through 

pictures on my computer

dear faces of so many family and friends ~

weddings and parties

just pictures

newborns and farewells

growing children (some not so child-like anymore)

Daring to go into my photograph albums and

the great box of pictures full of such rich family history

would involve much more than a half an hour.

Individual paths may take us far from each other ~ geographically,

yet there is always a path that 

leads family and friends to find each other once more.

What do I fear most from any disaster?

It is only that I will never ~ with family or friend

hold a familiar hand

wrap hugs together in joy or sorrow

kiss a tear away

share a smile, a laugh,

brush a wisp of hair from a brow.

Have there been disasters of the heart that

race and tear through my own

families and the families of my friends?

Of course there have.

Monstrous disasters run along generational fault lines.

Smaller dissatisfactions chip away at the same 

fault lines that burrow through our foundations.

But the family roots, and the roots of friendships grow deep

with love and support keeping us all 

whole and connected to each other ~

even if from a distance.

“Invisible threads are the strongest ties.”

~ Friedrich Nietzsche