When I am somewhere that I lived once, I sit still and think back on past experiences there. The air around me starts to vibrate with the feelings of those who have come and gone. I see, in my mind’s eye, the people who I knew. I hear their voices. And I feel them. They linger, and always will, in the places they loved the most.
Recently I spent an afternoon at the marina that I spent one of the best parts of my childhood in. The marina I lived in was torn out and thrown away decades ago, replaced by a modern, efficient marina with many more amenities. The earth was moved and part of the bay was filled. As I sat on a bench in front of a hotel that was not there forty years ago on land that was not there forty years ago the air in front of me unzipped, and the past was revealed. I could see the old docks, and feel the spirits of the people I loved as a child who lived there and have since gone.
The scene was just as lively as it was so long ago. The joy and feelings of peace, combined with the worry of a tumultuous world and stress of life, raising families, earning livings, recessions, wars, and all that was to come were visible in the eyes of those I remember well enough to see clearly through this perforation of time.
We don’t ever really die. What we have done, said, thought and been lingers. It’s always there for those who want to pull the cord on the thin curtain that exists between the present and the past.
The people who once lived are vibrations in the air now. What they did and who they were and what they saw and felt and thought are all part of those vibrations. Connect with that and you will feel it all, experience it all, and live a life that was in what will only be a moment for you but a lifetime for those who have been.