Day 60:
I look up after driving for about 20 minutes. The sun is setting, and it is a warm but comfortable summer evening with the golden hues reflecting on the trees in the yard of the home that sits before me. I recognize the house but not the person coming out the front door waving her arms at me, ranting like a crazy person, "Who are you! Get out of my driveway! We don't allow solicitors here!" I put my car in reverse and slowly pulled out of the driveway. "How had I ended up here?"
I had just attended a free writer's conference where I had listened to published writers read some of their work. It was a brief meeting after a long, hard day at work, but it had inspired me to return to the world of a story I had been working on over the years. The plot line unfurled in my head as I drove home from the meeting, feeling rejuvenated and inspired to revisit my imaginary world.
As I drove home from the conference, I passed Dr. Amy's large, blue-grey Victorian home on the main street. It had not changed, still shrouded by large trees with the small front yard overgrown with plants but somehow still seeming like is was tended to and was meant to have this appearance. Her house sent me into a different world, one that seemed to have happened a life-time ago. Dr. Amy had seen my children for about a year while one of her colleagues had counseled my husband and I in couples therapy. It was in that house where our marriage would meet its overdue demise, and the children would be given guidance.
I look up after driving for about 20 minutes. The sun is setting, and it is a warm but comfortable summer evening with the golden hues reflecting on the trees in the yard of the home that sits before me. I recognize the house but not the person coming out the front door waving her arms at me, ranting like a crazy person, "Who are you! Get out of my driveway! We don't allow solicitors here!" I put my car in reverse and slowly pulled out of the driveway. "How had I ended up here?"
I had just attended a free writer's conference where I had listened to published writers read some of their work. It was a brief meeting after a long, hard day at work, but it had inspired me to return to the world of a story I had been working on over the years. The plot line unfurled in my head as I drove home from the meeting, feeling rejuvenated and inspired to revisit my imaginary world.
As I drove home from the conference, I passed Dr. Amy's large, blue-grey Victorian home on the main street. It had not changed, still shrouded by large trees with the small front yard overgrown with plants but somehow still seeming like is was tended to and was meant to have this appearance. Her house sent me into a different world, one that seemed to have happened a life-time ago. Dr. Amy had seen my children for about a year while one of her colleagues had counseled my husband and I in couples therapy. It was in that house where our marriage would meet its overdue demise, and the children would be given guidance.
After passing the old home, I must have gone into mental cruise control, allowing old habits to guide my driving as I took inventory of life events that started with that house, memories that somehow intertwined into my fictional story and the science fiction realm I had created in my imagination. As we had done for the entire year in 2004, I drove home after going by Dr. Amy's...the home we had lost to foreclosure during the ensuing 3 year divorce process...the home we had spent several years and thousands of dollars renovating...the home we had bought in 1995 after moving to Wisconsin from Los Angeles. And there I sat....at a home that was no longer home.
As I drove away, I was not sad but amazed at the changes in life we all go through and how our past "lives" often reside in the same dimension as our current life, forcing us to recalibrate and take stock in where we were and where we are going. I am thankful that my old self somehow took me back to that house. Driving away this time meant closure and further solidified my desire to continue on my new adventures.
As I drove away, I was not sad but amazed at the changes in life we all go through and how our past "lives" often reside in the same dimension as our current life, forcing us to recalibrate and take stock in where we were and where we are going. I am thankful that my old self somehow took me back to that house. Driving away this time meant closure and further solidified my desire to continue on my new adventures.
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