About Time.

Right now time is slipping around me.
I don't really know what time it is.
I can look up at a clock that has not been set back
to recapture the hour we lost in the Spring.

And - I can't find a watch to wear.
The two with big faces
that I know are working
have disappeared overnight

while in the red box in my cabinet
where I keep a collection of watches
all the hands are still
the batteries have died out.

I don't know the time
its slipping by
I feel its breath

That's how I felt yesterday
when I called my cousin in North Carolina

We have never met
genealogy and curiosity about our families
are bringing us together

but when she answered the phone
her voice sounded like someone I knew
she is my family

She and I descend from Thomas Milton Hall
She from his oldest daughter - Cora - her grandmother
and I - from his youngest daughter- Ellie - my dear, sweet Granny.

She is younger than I am
but we know the same people
our people

Friday morning we will see each other
face to face for the first time
at the Philadelphia Presbyterian Church graveyard
in Mint Hill
at the foot of the headstones
for Thomas Milton Hall and his wife Alice Shaffer

surrounded by all their people
who are our people
our great great grandparents and beyond.

it seemed a good place to meet.

with us will be another cousin
a friend of her's
new to me
who descends from Thomas's brother Robert Amzy Hall

reaching out
we embrace a wider circle.

This is the perfect way to begin my Diamond Jubilee Tour.
entering my 75th year -
with the circle of my world expanding

Praise God.