Close your eyes.
Think back to the park you played in when you were young.
Imagine yourself with all of your childhood friends; bonds casted in stone; the strongest you have ever formed beyond family.
Everyone is there even those who have exited this life. They are healthy. They are smiling and sharing secrets and it's as if you can reach out and touch them.
Today in this flashback, in this park, everyone is very much alive and safe.
The mission of the day - simple - have fun, laugh, chase one another across an open field. Learn something - how to throw a Frisbee or pitch a strike or do a lay-up. Gather that endless energy that has returned to every molecule of your being and express yourself without any fear of being judged or silenced.
Smell the scent of summer as it breezes across the baseball field and talk as loud and as quickly as possible because you can't contain your enthusiasm. Watch the sun set and listen for your mother's voice calling you in for dinner.
Live in the here and now because when you're a kid, that's all you know and that's all you care about.
Laughing, joking, so much a part of being a child and so often lacking later in life when you are an adult. As an adult you often find yourself saying, " I have not laughed that much in ....". As an adult you hang onto those moments at dinner with friends or family or at work when as a group you laugh so hard that you cry. As a child that is a daily occurrence.
Have you ever gone back to a special place from your childhood? Have you ever returned to your old neighborhood and found yourself capturing images of your friends faces? Places from our pasts are overloaded with memories. Places from our pasts freeze time and capture everything that has escaped us as we move on in life.
My park remains in back of the house where I was born and lived for over 20 years. My parents are still there and my nephews play baseball and hockey in that very park where my brothers dressed me in over sized goalie equipment and took slap shots. This is also the park where I played girls softball and learned how to skate with my best friend Karen.
The same green benches that we sat on to watch many baseball games remain. I kissed a boy for the first time under those benches and my friends and I built a fort there as well. The benches served as our turf, our space and hangout.
Karen lived on the other side of the park from me so we could look across and see eachother on our balconies. We knew that if ever we needed one another no matter the time, we could signal eachother by turning on and off our porch lights. Sometimes we did so as a way to say goodnight instead of using the phone.
Whenever I visit my parents, I always go out on the back porch, I set my dogs loose to run and roll in the grass. I watch the sky change from blue to gray to orange and I listen to the ball players shouting and cheering under the giant lights as the moths dance and dangle beneath the glow.
And often, I wish I could gather up all of my friends and return to the park just one last time. I wish Karen still lived across the way and that her porch light would blink so we could meet in the middle and dance with the ghosts of our childhood as they sway and gather paying their respects to that sacred place in time.
The Past - when we are in it we can't wait for the Future. Inevitably we seem to always end up in the Present and then the Past is all we think about.
Let us plan your "REUNION TRIP" with friends from your childhood, former high school or college classmates or family.
Voyages Groupe Ideal - Ideal Travel
We share childhood memories - We share travel
Yours in Social Media and Travel lisacohen@groupeideal.ca
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