What goes around

I am spending the weekend with my son's family in relatively rural Ohio. There is a large cornfield right outside their back door perhaps 15 feet from the porch. As I stepped outside into yesterday morning's sunshine and looked across the countryside, I smiled reflexively. I had been ambushed by an old feeling, one I hadn't felt in years. I felt like I was back in North Carolina in my youth, looking out over the corn at my grandfather's small farm.

What goes around, eh? I find that the older I get the more often I am overtaken by old sensations, even those now decades old. This is not a bad thing. I wonder if it's what keeps us sane; there's something good to be said about continuity within cycles, of similarities with differences. We have the seasons, each distinct (in much of the world anyway) yet returning. It allows us change while also grounding us. We need change. But we need constants too.

So I had the opportunity yesterday to remember what it was like to be with me old grandpaw up early and checking out the crops, even for a relatively fleeting moment. I found a connection between my son and the great-grandfather he only met as a six month old infant. It kinda left me speechless. At the risk of hyperbole, kinda in awe.

What goes around. Life is good.