Sands in the hourglass are had in vain.  They pour without end, form eddies and maelstroms that never repeat and never return, drip between our fingers if we try to catch them, and ultimately slip away never to be recovered, all becoming liquid memory long since rushed beneath the bridge of time.  The only grain that counts is the one we hold right now, this single drop of time wherein we see ourselves reflected.

And right now can be a marvelous descant of resounding beauty, the trickling song of joy against the shores of this moment.  So to you—and you know who you are—let me say this:

It may not always be so, this that we share.  The headwaters of history wait for no man.  We seize the moment or we watch it mix with the flood of those that came before.

We can be swept up in whatever this is or we can let it sweep away its own memories to make room for the future.  I choose to be swept up in this tantalizing torrent.

In the silence I have known with you, there is a drumbeat resonating from an ancient heart, echoing across the unending stream of time, rising and falling with each breath.  Unlike others you have known, I do in fact hear it.  I listen for it.  I let it dance upon the ripples of seconds until it reaches my ears.

Lest you think me mad for the distances that separate us, friendship we have at least, always boundless and always limitless and never incapable of reaching distant coasts that we shall never see.  Wade into those waters with me, for if in the shallows of this potent river we find currents that lift us higher, I will swim by your side.

[the title is borrowed from a poem by Merrit Malloy; I don’t remember the exact work, but I do remember the gist was this: “I press my nose against the window of your life with the fear and interest of a ten-year-old reading Playboy.  It’s the safest scared I’ve ever been.”; and yes, that’s how I feel right now, and yes, this is essentially an open letter to someone; I’m in a very happy place]

[Update] Shot myself in the foot today.  On this very matter.  Thought I was being confident, clever and considerate; instead, I was being self-destructive.  Leave it to me to feel sureness at the very moment I think I know what the hell is going on when in fact I am ignorant and daftly out of touch.  I’ve thus impaled myself on my own ignorance.  How’s that for stupidity…