Come again

Most people would tell you that time is linear.  I know that is how it appears in the smaller increments like minutes, hours, and days.  The progression from sun up to sun down makes us experience the linear nature of time.

But then, there's the measure of a year that masks linear time and makes us see that time is cyclical.  The seasons make us know that somehow we have been in this period of time before.  Each spring we feel hopeful for what is to come and look forward to seeing life all around us come to life all over again.  Each summer brings its special delights of travel or other enjoyment.  Every fall we settle in for the beauty of leaves falling and weather changes.  Every winter we hibernate to the comfort of our warm houses.

And, to some extent, decades and centuries act cyclically as well.  We feel that others have passed through this time before us and had many of the same kinds of experiences we have had.

Inside my mind tonight, I look back down the line of time.  I pause at the places I want time not to march past, but to stop.  Several of those spots bring laughter or joy or pleasure to my heart.  And then there's this one spot... ahhhhh this one place... where, when I look closely, the line becomes the circle of the yearly cycle, and where the laughter, joy, and pleasure last as if time is in slow motion.  More than anything, I wish the loop here would not simply slow down but change again into the circles of infinity.

Eventually, however, even in slowed time, the cycle runs its course and straightens again into linear time.

But tonight, I am inside that slow-moving loop... cherishing each of its seconds... loving the joy of those seconds... and having faith that another loop with the same moments will fill a spot soon on the timeline.