Catching Lightning Bugs In A Jar

Writing about Jonathan made me think of some of our past correspondences. There are many I would love to share, but this one stood out:

SHADOW FOREST,
"Sometimes, when you live a life worth remembering, and when you pour your self out for others to see, a part of you comes back to find you, a piece of you that you left behind." (S.F./K.R.)
this is absolutely beautiful from CAPTURING LIGHTNING BUGS IN GLASS JARS, bro... i was just reading back over some of your writings and thought i'd return this one to you... for you to read with fresh eyes and an unexpecting Heart:

"It is odd how even our physical memories of the past reside in dark, cramped rooms in the attics, sheds, and corners of our homes. How we turn off the light and shut the door on the past when we are done looking at it.

But if Einstein's theories of relativity are true, as humans we have just tried to capture a living, breathing thing in a holding cell so that we can look in on it when we want to in the same way a child captures a lightning bug in a glass jar.

And odder still how time repeats itself--maybe that gives further credence to Mr. Einstein.

The ghosts of one generation's youth are the near past of a present generation and the coming future of a bubbling generation. And even more so in a small town. How deep the threads must run when even after mixing genes the child so resembles the adult, in more ways than one.

What is that pang in my deepest insides? Why do I know these people so well? Why am I looking THROUGH a mirror, not in a mirror?

This is the trail I am following. This line leads me past families watching me pass by, it leads me past shared memories, it leads me beyond common bonds, it brings me to the root of the matter, to the root of life itself.

And it ends where it began--KIRBYVILLE."


-from my friend and brother, SHADOW FOREST-- Kent Rabalais