branches

As the kids and I started home today, we stopped off to see my brother's and sis-in-law's new puppy, and my sister's progress on mom's homeplace which she recently acquired and of which you saw pics back in August when I drove up to rescue Will from the foul clutches of my family, with whom he'd spent nearly two weeks.
Jodi had done much work on the house, but we took a quick scan and spent the rest of the visit outside in the beautiful autumn. It is an incredible joy to see my own children playing at my grandparents' house 34 years after they've gone. Playing in the same grass and climbing the same trees, hiding behind the same rocks as my mom did 50 years ago, as I did 35 years ago.
I snapped a pic of the kids in the big-maple-on-top-of-the-rock. I thought of all the branches on that tree, which had to spend its first years sending roots through a gargantuan boulder before it found its footing. I thought of how trees come together and share roots, and together, send off new branches. The earlier branches begin to disappear from all but memory and the incredible support system through rocky beginnings that they have built and provided so that the subsequent branches can grow thick and long and stay supported.
Yes, there are missing faces on the branches of that tree. But look at the fresh ones! And look at those roots!
Generations are supported on the roots of the past.