The Art of Timeless Play

This is William. He is my sister's son's child, my great nephew. He is a beam of fresh sunlight and a gust of fresh air. If you cannot feel levitated in his presence, you are a hopeless cause. He is all that is right about childhood. He is loving and understanding and hopeful and curious and honest and forgiving and incredibly entertaining. He defines character but he has yet to hear the word. He knows nothing but goodness and works hard to find joy in all that he can touch. His concept of time is entirely "here and now" and he well understands that "to live means to live now."

Today, as I played with him, I experienced great happiness but, to be honest, I also struggled for just a brief period of time. I felt incredibly close to him in terms of the heart but all too distant in terms of time. I was not struggling with his existence but, rather, the passage of mine. I remembered vividly the day his father was born. It was a remarkable day for our family for he was my parent's first grandchild and my first nephew. That day of familial paradise must have been yesterday because I remember it just that way. But, today and only for a moment, as I watched William play with every grain of sand on the beach, I fully realized that an equal amount of sand had passed in my hourglass of time. These thoughts of time passage were not a welcomed element in my day and they were burdening the bliss. So, I threw my hourglass as far into the water as I could and decided it was to be found another day.

It is our children and our children's children that teach us how to live in the moment without a care as to what happened before or what lies ahead. It is called the art of timeless play.

Thank you for the amazing comments and hearts and stars on my Andrew blip of yesterday. These journal entries of our family reunion have meant the world to me and your kindness has made this entire experience all the more memorable. You are a special lot to whom I give thanks and I hope to have the time to better return the kindness in the next few days.