Category: ancestry

My sister asked, “Do you remember that morning at the beach?”

 How could I  forget?

A memory of us. Two children lost in fantasy, tiny feet dancing as the ocean kissed the sand. Accidental twins, our small bodies snuggled in white hoodies.

“You took a stick and drew a huge circle,” she said,

I remember.

“I drew a circle to protect us.”

I see her step inside the circle. She is careful not to smudge the rounded edges.

The circle was our make shift island. A sanctuary, both too young to appreciate, paused moments are fleeting. We didn’t know of danger.

The universe knew. Two sprites and a majestic sea. Brave and shivering as the winds blew. A shipwrecked dinghy, marooned on the sand. Their stick, an oar.

It was as if our mere survival depended on circles.

Circles were everywhere throughout our world. We scampered through dense forests, our hard backs kissed by a honeyed sun. When night fell, two wolf pups mapped the stars and howled beneath a buttery moon.

We studied planets. Ever curious, our questions wheeled with ‘whys.’ Never sure, we chased certainty’s tail, passionate in our quest for truth.

We embraced circles. In the 70’s it was mandalas, knotted bandanas about our heads, and bracelets upon our wrists. We drove cars round blocks, cities, and countries, always to circle back home.

We are all circles.  The whorls on our fingertips, the irises of our eyes, our DNA cells, to the egg that gave us life.

 She asked, “Will life break us apart?”

“Never,” I said. ” If we drift apart, we’re returned by centrifugal force and universal law. Our fingers, forever tangled by an invisible thread that binds.”

She reaches for my hand.

Our circle is strong.