Links in a chain...

Lately my camera lense keeps finding chains. It found one on the rocky shore by the harbor, covered in ice and barnicles. The chain pictured here is hanging, abandoned, in the window of a tumbledown barn I explored recently. Then there is the chain attached to the gate where my horse lives. A few of the links on that chain are worn perfectly and uniformily smooth. The old metal glints dully. These are the links that are touched each day as the gate is fastened and unfastened. The links that hang below the simple hook are untouched- rough and rusty, though still strong and useful.

And all of that makes me think about the links that anchor us here on this spinning ball. From the stuff we are all on a mad quest to acquire, to what really matters... the relationships we have with our fellow travelers. Luckily as I grow older I treasure those links more and more.

I have people in my life whom I rarely see, but think of and treasure. I have people in my life that I care about though I have never met them. My only communication with these people is though a key board and a blue-hued screen. And there are people I meet briefly out in the world and share a quick conversation that warms me all day. Those are the links on my chain that are real, and strong and wonderful, but perhaps a little rusty and lacking shine. And then, then there are the friends and family whose faces are as familiar as my own, whose smile will dependably reflect one of mine when I flash it, and whose laughter is the music to which my life's best dances are set. Gleaming links in a wondrous chain that makes just everything worthwhile.