Threads

Days of moving about freely among crowded restaurants, stores, concerts, bars, and dance floors, schools, and places of work.

Speaking to each other across tables, desks, or just a few feet apart in a hallway or front yard. Bumping elbows, shaking hands- – -hugging.

Those days are slowly unraveling before us like thread on wooden spool.

All tightly wound and shiny, brightly colored only a month ago.

Today it sits loosely as if spun through a broken sewing machine too fast.

Tangled and loose. So we pick it up and begin winding it again.

We gather up hopeful needles, and entwine our threads from a distance.

We weave together a beautiful tapestry of love and care, sacrifice and sympathy, empty rooms and empathy, brave and bruised faces, prayer and play, symphony and song.

More prayer.

Weaving together the threads –

Reaching out through the world’s web of virtual connection

Virtual redefines connection. FaceTime calls with friends and family.

Social media conversations, and live broadcasts.

Impromptu concerts late at night. Reading to children and anyone else who wants to hear. Collecting food for those less fortunate.

Making masks for the brave souls on the front lines.

Prayer chains everywhere for the sick and suffering.

Finding solace in the newfound solitude.

Stargazing at 3 am.

Planting starter seeds for a new garden you will share with whoever needs.

Learning a new dance step or a long abandoned musical instrument.

Watching a child learn in slow motion.

Watching the planet heal briefly, a lesson learned.

Introspective journeys not taken often enough become everyday trips into our conscience, returning with a nourished soul. We place newly loosened spools nearby.

Waiting to weave.

Some days they will unravel quickly and might even tangle a bit.

Days when we find ourselves speaking words strung together in an order we’ve never spoken before.

They feel strange on our tongues, and surreal in our imaginations.

With mercy and might we tug on the knots, release the tension, and begin to thread again.

They will weave a new tapestry of tales.

An arras full of colors never before seen in our lifetime. Something beautiful.

A work of Art that will redefine the soul of America.