Gratefully Always

As it turns out, today will be a collision of past, present and future ---

Around the beautiful table set to Downton Abbey music, seven precise settings,

We will gather - all of us with our pasts, some connected and some not -

Bringing our memories to this new and yet quite old table -

Here they've all sat before in such an arrangement, while I have not.

Where they all were thirty-nine years ago today, I cannot know.

Full well, every fiber of my being knows exactly where I was at each minute of this day.

A plethora of stories and histories, spoken and unspoken, we'll each bring -

To gather with the leader of this changing clan  which is bound by so many feelings.

My prayer is that each of us will be ready to embrace the new present and the unfolding future with joy even as we tightly hold our pain, our loss, our missing loved ones.

This table may be set for seven, but far, far more will be seated

Yes, far more......

For our loved ones will always come with us to this table --

Gratefully Always.