The Funnel

Girls do not sit under apple trees alone. They bring with them all the people and thoughts that touch their lives in any significant way. Behind this girl, in the shadows of a gnarly old tree, are an amazing array of people.

Each one has many stories to tell, many powers to share, many foibles to overlook. They are lessons in triplicate with subtitles and hidden messages everywhere.

One by one they funnel through her, becoming the stories they are, and one by one she is awed by the reverence she feels for their creators.

It is not the bags of gold they carry on their backs that makes them special, it is the loaf after loaf of bread they buy to give to the hungry, the bottles of medicine bought one at a time to cure the sick, the endless times they reach out to pull the failing back from the edge.

The girl knows first hand how it feels to be on both sides. It is how she became the funnel.