I recently attended a gathering in Maine. The eloquent speaker started out with a quote. I’m sure I was not alone in hearing her words describe our current world. In fact, she was quoting lines written almost 70 years ago. Same words. Same reality? That is where the surprise came in – how different are the two worlds?

I was at this event – a fundraiser for the environmental company my daughter works for – with Lucy, my childhood friend. We met not exactly 70 years ago but getting close. We see each other rarely, so the far distant past stays present for me when I am with her. It’s like two worlds, side by side. Then and now.

After the event, I returned to the lake. No longer day in and day out in solitude, I am blessed with the company of my son, Samsun, and his girlfriend, Amanda. The weekend brought more visitors, magnetized to the promise of outdoors, quiet, sweet conversation. Ease. The winter world is erased. The summer world overlaps it. Replaces it.

Each person brings their own energy, their own particular perspective. Contribution. Flavor. Their own scene.

I sometimes feel as if, as an adult, I am just beginning to understand childhood stories: Alice in Wonderland, the Narnia secret closets/realms. As I watch my experience shift from relative aloneness and quiet of winter and I encounter the spaces of: my past deep friends, my close family, my new acquaintances, and sense: their world. Their worlds. The new rooms that we create together as we pass through the moments, the days.

Cheshire cat? Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee? “The time has come the walrus said…” Past and present. All present.

My art. It’s own world. Any different?

Hmmmm….