January, 2006

When I close my eyes and think about it, I can imagine all the places I’ve been.  It’s more than a passing memory – it’s like a photograph taken with all my senses.  I can vividly remember what the lights of Shibuya look like, the feel of hot marble under my feet at the Taj Mahal, the sound of temple bells in the bamboo forestof Kyoto.  I can taste the berries that I picked from the lava fields of Iceland, the dust on the winds of the GobiDesertand the kangaroo shared with Aborigine friends.  But it’s not just the physical senses that take part – it’s the emotion, the mind, the spirit.  The truly unconditional love of those who still love me when I’m being selfish, or foolish, or just plain silly.  The warmth of their acceptance, the security of their sanctuary and the million and one things that make them a vital part of who they are – and of the person they inspire me to be.

Sometimes I imagine what it must be like to be in the places that we are now starting to touch.  What is it like to stand on the slopes of Olympus Mons?  To experience the frozen but starkly beautiful wastes of Europa?  To hang, suspended in velvet blackness, surrounded by stars the like of which have never been seen from under our planet’s atmosphere?  What a time we’re living in, that we dare to imagine such things!  And what a future we can look forward to.