We look upon our children

We look upon our children through years which gift in hours,
and sometimes even minutes, or seconds in those times
of pain, where eternity gathers in small, cold hands, the
pieces of what we had believed that life would bring, and
who they might be, and how our journey together would
unfold.

They are not ours to possess, or even keep, but
just an offering which life, or karma, or the Graces have
brought to us, for minutes, or days, or weeks, or months,
or years of their being and ours. From that first quick, soft-
lipped breath, they have our hearts, and will hold them
until death draws through silent teeth, the last of our
material selves.

What no-one says, keeping the great
secret, is that from the moment they unfold into this world,
we will feel for them, be for them, stand by them,
unconsciously if not consciously, until the end of our days -
and perhaps beyond. For the weaving of our lives is
sometimes tight and sometimes loose, but always connected;
there is no breaking of the ephemeral threads which hold
us joined through time and never, can the shimmer of
that embroidered truth, be dimmed, or brought undone.


There is no force on earth which can unpick the pattern made,
completely. For, even in the easing out of all that holds
relationship in place, is left an image of what was - the dye
will run into the fabric of Self and it can never be removed.
The truth of our children is that there can never be a separation,
in any real sense and that where the physical world would
say it has been done; the realms of spirit and of soul, and of
love, would gently smile, and stroke forgiving hands
across the faint but  sure enduring marks that have been made.