“Time and tide wait for no man.”
St. Marher 1225
Our lives are like the tide that floods, then ebbs and crawls back across the sand until it is engulfed by the new flood. So it is for each of us, so it is for each generation. Time is linear, past, present and future. The past is our prologue, it is fixed and beyond our control, yet it shapes us and we must know it to know ourselves. We create our present through choices made within the limits of time and place. We build bridges to connect or walls to divide.
What of the future? In a sense the future is already here in our children. Certainly our choices will provide the stage upon which the future will be played out, but, in the words of the Holy Father last week, “Where does the future lie? The future lies with the young who possess two qualities: wings and roots.” Continuing, the Pope explained that, “Young people have wings so they can fly, to dream, to create, and roots to receive the wisdom of their elders.”
Ah yes, the roots. That is where we, the older generation, come in. We cannot be the roots, for they belong to the future, but we are the soil in which they grow and which will form the faith, the values, the dreams and the visions that will shape the future.
Each generation passes the torch with reluctance and anxiety, uncertain about the preparedness of the new torchbearers. But, our tide will ebb, the torch will pass and those of us who passed the flame must follow the new path that unfolds before us.
—
Image credit: Unsplash
This post is also available in/Esta entrada también está disponible en: Spanish