Returning
POSTCARD BOARD GAMES is back with ROUND 2!
As the new Kickstarter project begins, I figured an appropriate blog post would be the theme of RETURNING.
There are times in our lives, whether on purpose or by the whims of circumstance, when we return to something from our past. Sometimes it's a song we haven't heard in a long time that instantly brings us back to a moment filled with emotions. Perhaps it's a long lost childhood friend that we now meet in adulthood. Or maybe it's a place. A place we loved, a place we hated, a place we feared, or a place we longed to someday see again. It's interesting to me how returning to something after an absence can affect us in different ways.
The photo above is of a large boulder formation in the woods of Pennsylvania. It is accessible only by hiking through rough terrain. There are no paths to this place. It contains a labyrinth of crevices large enough to walk through. As a child, it was one of the coolest places I'd ever seen. It seemed right out of the Flintstones. I could imagine stone age people returning here from a woolly mammoth hunt, or taking shelter from rainstorms and saber-toothed tigers. I wondered who, if anyone, stood among these huge rocks in the ancient past. It felt magical just to be there.
I once returned to my childhood home as an adult. I hadn't seen it since I was five years old. When I looked around the backyard, which had seemed a hundred feet long when I was a kid, I was very surprised to see just how tiny it was. It was almost as if someone had used the machine from "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" to zap the entire property. It was strange that my memories were slightly askew from the reality that I saw. But it made sense. The last time I saw this place I was tiny, so my perspective was different.
As an adult, I wanted to return to this boulder formation I had known when I was young. Remembering my experience with seeing my childhood home again, I fully expected these boulders to be waist-high. My memory was of a gigantic Stonehenge tumbled into the side of a mountain. Rocks so tall that they tower above your head. Plateaus to see miles and miles into the distance. But I was small back then. Now, I imagined, they will be tiny to me. A few stones you could easily jump over.
As I pushed on through the thick woods, I saw it. The rock formation. And I was more surprised than I thought I would be. It WAS huge! Perhaps larger than I remembered. I explored walkways between the boulders, marveled at the immensity of both the individual stones and their formation, and climbed high to a large perch overlooking a vast expanse. Wow. What an awesome feeling.
What I learned from that trip is that yes, our associations of things are shaped by our perspective at the time. And often a different perspective, formed over the subsequent layers of time and life experience, causes those things to seem very different in the future. These things somehow change. But sometimes, if we're lucky enough, we return to a place that is just as amazing as it was when we left it. A place that quenches our desire to know that there are still awesome things out there, waiting for us. It's like a promise that we're sure will be broken, but ends up being more than fulfilled.
a view of a large beautiful pond near the rocks
I sat on those rocks without a thought in my head. Just being there was enough for me. I enjoyed every moment. I know there will be hard times in the future for myself and everyone else. But I am comforted by the fact that those rocks were still there like I remembered. Sitting patiently for someone to come and climb on them. And someday, I hope to return again.
Have you ever returned to a place you haven't seen in a long time? What was your experience?
That's enough thoughts for now.
Take care.
