Smoking cigars and saying good-bye...written: June 11, 2007

Going back to a place past is a strange sensation. Especially when it's been an extended amount of time since you explored this long ago place. And even though it's been almost a lifetime, and you're not at all that same person you once were, those old ghosts are still there. They still roam around that place and are more than a little bit close to being visible.

I'm sitting in one of my past places…and I feel as if I were to close my eyes, that girl laughing next to me would be my sweet, old friend, here to meet me to have a chat and some coffee. This old familiar place has a way of bringing back memories that have been lost within me for years. Like the time we smoked cigars on the coffee shop patio, way, way, way after it had closed. And the time we talked and talked and talked, and our hearts finally said good-bye. And I say we…it's sort of a collective 'we' because so many people make up that time…fill up that place. So many 'we's' that I've forgotten…they have a way of running back to me here.

Things change. Life happens. And people grow, or don't…but nothing ever stays the same for long. And once there's a change, it can't be unchanged. It's a fact. I know this…and I don't even mind this. It's almost what means we're living.

But it is nice…if even for a moment…to be that girl again…waiting for her friend…in her favorite jeans and flip-flops…a journal and sketch book under her arm…wondering what the day holds.