Thirty years of summers as we entered our middle years, our parents becoming grandparents, and our children, adults: their growth as imperceptible in the moment as the changing girth of trees, and as startling in retrospect as the forest that replaces thready saplings and threadbare underbrush.

We’ve grown every which way. At first in the same direction, though now, as each one finds their feet, in a more cavalier flight of seed and leaves, the roots in some shared soil (which one? where?) and reaching for the same sun (that one, there) but to the east and to the west. That’s the nature of Being, and the nature of beings. Take flight!

So now it’s time to say goodbye. We knew the end would come: every day will have its night, and every wheel turns ’round. Thanks to Victoria for the warmth of its waters, the welcoming smiles of its inhabitants, and the memories which have collected like shells washed ashore.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2015