Imagine to Remember

As a young girl I always loved the swings. I would swing, tilting my head back as far as I could with my gaze fixed on the endless blue above me, until for a brief moment it would be the only thing in my sight. The wind filled my ears, and the neighbourhood began to fade away. At the lake or the pool, I would swim as far away as I could from others. I would float in the water in perfect stillness. The water caressing my head drowning out the sounds of their laughter. Again my gaze was perfectly fixed on the sky above me, my body gently rocked by the water. In these moments I felt as though I existed outside of time, in a place of beauty and stillness. I was totally present. Presence is one the great gifts of childhood.   

As children we find that these moments of ecstasy and serenity are easy to come by, or rather easy to come into. To be both out of your mind and in your body, in the best possible way, as you approach the edge of the sublime. We try of course to recapture these precious, fleeting moments into our adulthood. Drugs and sex don’t quite get us there. he Attempting to re-enter this world becomes an all consuming pursuit, it can become disastrous. It almost seems that something of that initial magic has become closed off to us. But it isn’t really. It’s still there, still accessible, if only we can get out of our own way.