Unlike most of my other favorite places; these old familiar places require a trans-Pacific flight that spans many time zones. It’s not one of those places you can just up and go to. But once every so many years, I get the opportunity to re-visit my birth place.
There is an elementary school field where I spent many a sunny day hanging out with my best friends and siblings, kicking a soccer ball around, dressed like a famous British Soccer club…long bobby socks, white long sleeved sweaters and black shorts. Wearing sweaters under a sweltering 32 degree sun wasn’t the smartest thing we did…but we did look good. Oh! To be a child again! No cares…no worries…just living for the next sunny day.
The years fly by quickly and before I knew it, I was enlisted into the Army. Most of my Infantry days were spent around a tiny village near the beach; a beach that my dad had brought us countless times when we were kids. This place is extra special as it’s also the place where I took my first stroll, hand in hand, with my only girlfriend and future wife. I would go on to spend another 12 years around this place, after I signed a contract with the Air Force.
Recently, I took a stroll down memory lane, when I returned to these places. There is a food center in that village by the sea; and to my pleasant surprise, I found the same food stores I had regularly ate at nearly 30 years ago. Sitting down to a meal in those exact same stools and tables brought back many more good memories of a time long ago.
Thoughts on Old Familiar Places
Visiting old familiar places restores the sense of innocence – it brings you back to a time when you “thought all things possible – all dreams achievable.” Time to recapture old dreams again!
Old familiar places helps you make fresh commitments to those things you valued most. Time erodes some of those things and they require a re-visitation.
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