While I was laying in the solemn darkness of the evening the other night, I began to venture into a foreign land, one may call The depths of my own mind. Venturing through such an obscure setting that you would believe to find familiar considering it is your own mind yet discovering how something so familiar could be so foreign. Climbing over your thoughts rocky terrain jumping into the wading pools of ideals and free falling with the “ what ifs” that keep us in an anxiety ridden state . I was in a forest of enormous tropical trees with canopies extending miles and miles beyond the naked eye’s view. The ground went from a muck of mud to stone streets in Paris and suddenly those canopies were buildings and cafes. It was a wonderment to me how something that is part of us could create a puzzling and wondrous world that bewilders and intrigues you, while at the same time may frighten you due to the lack of the known. While my feet were pattering along the cold stone streets of curiosity I came across an old café that had a haunting charm. Suddenly I was in a pretty full shop with all walks of life around me meeting and greeting over teas , cappacinos , scones and sandwiches on baguettes. You could here conversations ranging from couples about their relationships , children fighting over the last piece of desert and weight obsessed women making sure that their salad dressing was ON THE SIDE! The deeper I ventured into this crowded place the brighter my surroundings became and the haunted appearance disappeared but the charm grew more. Suddenly, my path was interrupted by an old woman sitting in an enormous velvet orange wing back chair. She sat there straight up with delicate posture and huge bug eye sunglasses. She had a red coat on that enveloped her with black leggings , silver ballet flats and short black hair that had been slicked back to one side behind her ears. She glanced up at me and smiled very softly . She looked over at the wooden rocking chair across from her and told me in a booming tone , “Please sit , join me it would be nice to have the company.” Relieved to hear comfortable voice I agreed and joined this character on my mysterious venture. While her features were soft her nature tended to be more abrupt. This women intrigued me , she was so foreign yet it felt as if I had known her all my life . We began talking, she was telling me about the shop and how it came to be and how she had came here for years. Her quaking arm reached out for her tea and as she pulled the worn china away from her lips she pulled off her eye wear and I was met by two large brown pools of eyes. She asked me something , “ How is it that something so familiar and close to you could be so foreign and mysterious ?”. I began to ponder this thought and before I knew it this alter-universe had melted away and I was back in my own bed in the solemn dark room.
Since this excursion my mind had been onI have been asking myself why is it that a place so strange could be familiar and comforting ? Is it because we are all strange and that is part of our alter-ego? Or perhaps it is because we are judging ourselves as strange when in reality it is our comfortable state and we get to caught up to slow down and face it.
Whatever it may be the strangest things in life sometimes are the things we draw on for some type of consolidation and comfort due to the lack of reliable comforting things in life. It is a mystery but one that may make you wonder about things in life the way it did to me .
Think about it
