The Ties That Bind

There are so many questions in a life.  There is so little time to ask them.  There is even less time to wait for the answers.  But forcing answers may bring insincerity to a life.  To all of the lives connected to that life.

And what of that life and those connected lives?  How are they connected?  And just what are the ties that bind them or that have bound them together in the past?

Just as the human body instinctively heals itself, are our souls not inclined to do the same?  It seems to me that they are, but that there is a distinct and notable difference between the healing of the body and the healing of the soul.  The process is essentially the same.  Aesthetically, the outcome is the same as well.

When a knee is scraped, the body immediately goes to work, producing a scab, covering up the wound, and keeping any possible forthcoming dangers at bay.  In time, if the scrape is small enough, the evidence disappears without a trace.  A deeper cut or more serious injury may end up leaving a scar.  That scar serves as a reminder to the knee's owner that they'd better be careful the next time they go climbing the tree in the back yard.  This reminder simultaneously acts as a news bulletin to all who lay eyes on the knee: This knee has been hurt.

The souls of people are woven together in a complex tapestry that when glanced at from afar looks much more smooth than it actually is.  Each moment in time, even when we are not aware of it, we are each weaving our way through our life stories, and through the life stories of those around us.  It seems that we are intertwined in such a way that we do not realize the extent of our souls' connections until something happens, whether that something is good or bad (or in the gray area where most of the world exists).  So when something happens...when threads become frayed or severed, it is felt by the closely surrounding areas of the tapestry.  When threads are snipped there are a few things that can be done.  The one remedy with the least effort but maybe also the most possible destruction is to just leave it.  If you leave a loose thread, and don't ever touch it or mess with it, there's a possibility that it may make it through.  But that leaves two threads, raw and bare, with no support or protection.  A loose thread can also weave itself in an out of other surrounding threads, finding support and community.  Or, if the protection of one's heart is the main concern, a loose thread can simply follow the example of the human body and cover itself up, closing out anything and everything else that may come along.  But when we essentially cover ourselves like aglets on shoelaces, we cut ourselves off from life itself.

So what happens when severed threads wish to try knotting themselves together once more?  What happens when you've got a handful of aglets, bumping against each other, longing for the way things used to be?  I'd hazard a guess that things will never be the way that they used to be...but that's not to say that they could not be better than they are now.

How does one begin tying that knot?  Does the knot begin with apologies or forgiveness?  Which thread initiates it?  When, if ever, to the aglets come off?  And maybe most importantly, if the threads were to successfully weave themselves together...would they ever be able to live with the fact that there are some obvious knots where it once seemed that they were fused together without a hitch?