Marking Time
Last night my daughter and I went for a walk to get funnel cake at the carnival. We do this every year at least once and sit down on a bench nearby and share it. The carnival is set up exactly the same way every year. I have pictures going back 15+ years and they look just like what I see today. Once in awhile a ride changes but things like the stand with the funnel cake is always in the same place, with the same woman running the show with new faces around her. It got me thinking about how the passing of time gets marked by these patterns in our lives.
Sometimes they’re directly tied to events, like the yearly Community Days festival that happens in my town every year around the 4th of July. Sometimes they’re tied to the seasons. My local grocery store reminds me that Summer is fast approaching when I see mulch stacked, and flowers lined up on the sidewalk outside in the late Spring. We move into Summer and those things eventually disappear and soon items for Fall will take their place.
New Years Eve. The Spring Equinox. Summer festivals. Birthdays. Anniversaries. Leaves falling off the trees. The holidays at the end of the year…then the pattern starts again. People come and go from our lives but these patterns keep going, over and over again, marking time.