Paradox 

What makes us reminisce, seek out and connect with distant friends and family?  Meeting with a childhood friend I realize that there is nothing familiar about the physical human being in front of me.  Almost all the cells in this body have regenerated a thousand times over so from a scientific point of view, this human is a complete stranger.  And even the mind, the brain, the beliefs and values, habits and actions of this person, are no longer familiar to me.  And yet, I still think I know this old friend.  Don’t I?  

40 years may have passed and I still feel warmth, connection, understanding, empathy, even love. 

Memories supply the bond that connects and rejuvenates. 

Patience 

Nodding of heads.  Agreeing to incomplete thoughts.  Smiling at vaguely familiar faces.  Listening, listening, listening.  To the stories that are being told.  To the explanations of various decisions over a lifetime.  Waiting for the moment when sharing is desired.  Waiting, listening.  Patience.  The moment flutters away.  Still listening. And waiting. 

Presence 

Mom, we are here. Right now. Just here.  Holding attention.  Witnessing the journey of a soul.  The mother soul.  The genesis of my existence.  How peculiar that I should have emerged from here.  So unfamiliar now.  Yet life-giving and life-saving from the start, in the beginning.  Life-affirming.  No longer required.  Is that true?  Maybe everything has been reversed.  My presence is now life-affirming.  Giving meaning to what has been.  Mother. I am here.  I am with you.  I will always be with you.