stone by stone

"Marco Polo describes a bridge, stone by stone.

'But which is the stone that supports the bridge?' Kublai Khan asks.

'The bridge is not supported by one stone or another,' Marco answers,

'but by the line of the arch that they form.'

Kublai Khan remains silent, reflecting.

Then he adds: 'Why do you speak to me of stones? It is only the arch that matters to me?'

Polo answers: 'Without stones there is no arch.'"

(Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities)

--

Over the weekend, we celebrated our first friendsgiving;  a new kind of holiday that is incredibly vogue at present. After a weekend away, I can understand why.

We slept on air mattresses we'd brought ourselves, opened bottles of wine much too early and ate our meal around a kitchen table that was admittedly too small.

It was perfect. 

Time is tricky thing. You never quite know what it has in store for you; when you will first meet those people with whom you will always keep in touch. Those with whom you share struggles and embarrassments so freely. Its especially hard when you move somewhere new, and it seems impossible to imagine yourself as anyone other than that stumbling, fumbling fool with no connections. But you move forward, with a mundane kind of faithfulness--and then, one day, you realize that amidst all that fumbling, stone by stone, you've made progress. And I am so thankful for that. 

(photo) taken on my iphone and edited with vsco