“Heartstrings,” New Era, Aug. 2001, 51
Heartstrings
I still remember the day
I first learned our connection,
Grandpa—
the day Mom told me
that you and Grandma
belong to her
like she and Dad
belong to me.
My surprise
gave way
to pleasure
as my young thoughts
grasped the logic
of the connection.
True,
my previous theory
was a good one—
that we had somehow picked you
out of all the nice, gray-haired
people in the world
and called you ours—
but how much sweeter to know
that God had somehow picked you
out of all the nice
people in the world
and called you ours
and His
and let you earn your gray hairs
by creating a connection
linking heaven and earth,
parents and children,
teaching by example,
loving unconditionally.
The years
give increasing way
to pleasure
and gratitude
as my thoughts
grasp the logic—
the eternal logic—
of the connection
that what I learned
at one loving knee
was once learned
at yours.
I’ll always remember the way
I learned our connection, Grandpa—
our inseparable connection
from heart to heart.