the Tapestry of Life

Tonight the blank cloth lies patiently waiting for someone to make the first stitch. Suddenly fate’s needle plunges into the empty expanse; colors appearing where there once were none as Her mother’s voice is heard above the cries; to be or not to be, no longer a question. Now she’s slipping through the stages, riding a bike, “Just let me go!” The machine is whirring here, picking up speed. Wild adventures with friends, sweet summers gone before she realizes. An elaborate tangle of lines sweep across the canvas of cloth now, a canvas in constant motion, as she loses, learns, and loves. A white dress, “Til death do us part,” as the girl promises forever; their separate colors of thread blurring here together. So much is uncertain, so much this one doesn’t know, but her story is already begun; the flexible fabric slipping quickly through spindly fingers of the years. Until, eventually, the pedal eases to a slow stop and a picture, a portrait, a person finally appears.