Time is a funny thing--most of the time it's an unyielding wall between you and the past, only allowing your mind through; and then sometimes it can surprise you by opening right up and letting you almost experience multiple phases of your life at once. I felt a moment like this while running on the MKT trail yesterday morning; the sight of someone opened a door that took me right back to a time many years ago. Discovery; filmy dresses and cool breezes on summer days through a shaded corner room; Queen Elvis on the sidewalk and ringing mandolins, flutes and honeyed harmonies through the languid nights. The end of those days was an incredible detour for me and in quiet moments I still feel torn between turning back toward there or turning further away. It makes me wonder about the things that seem so solid now, and all the things that have seemed solid yet crumbled in the years since. The Buddhist in me knows that's the way of all things, but the human in me doesn't want to accept it. In moments like yesterday's, the loves and lessons of those days seem so far away, yet closer than ever. Time is a funny thing.

Or perhaps time is just, in the immortal words of Thundercleese, "an abstract concept created by carbon-based lifeforms to monitor their ongoing decay."

Labels: Life