The Chain Rejoined

Chains link things together: families, gates, animals that may not have stayed together on their own if given a choice each new day. When a chain, once lost in the woods, lies rusting and buried beneath the leaves and worms, neither tested nor put to real work, may forget the hands that once wrapped around it, may disintegrate in time and return to mere minerals. If a chain falls out of the present tense, even if only lost to those who used it, then it will forfeit all the life and plans and intentions that it once had. Only memory and appreciation can save it. Bits of lost and buried chain, when recovered and joined again, can reach full circle. Thanks belong to your eyes for waking up these stories. Until you, they had been forgotten once again.