Tuesday, July 12, 2011

The Magic Time

" A lot of the pull of creativity is an overcoming of time and space- we pull memories forward to us so they might live again, so that we might reignite the spark of life into things, times, people that we held dear - with the stroke of a pencil, the sweep of a brush, the click of knitting needles, we bring them alive in the everlasting now, in tangible form which transcends the fleeting memory, and once again creates the golden time, in our own image..."

I wrote this last night as I was trying to analyse the creative lure - what is it, I wondered, that made us want to create? And for me I realised that much of what feels good and right, that which I seek to re-create in my own home and life, in my creativity was what I absorbed in the rich couple of years, between ages two and four, that we lived with my granny and papa in Wood Cottage. It was a glorious oasis of stability in a turbulent childhood. I was unaware of the adult politics above my head. Instead the glory of the house full of treasures and garden full of wonder filled my heart and soul with their seeds, which over my lifetime I have watered and sought to make bloom. So much of what I experienced there set a marker on my soul for what feels good, right, what I want to surround myself with, what I choose to experience started there:
  • hammocks and rabbits ear plants, strawberry patches and bluebell woods, 
  • civilized days punctuated by picnic lunches on the lawn, afternoon tea with cake and G &T o'clock (that time just before 6pm when a gin and tonic is as good as medicine to ease you into an evening),
  • button boxes and wildlife books,
  • the joy of recipe books, especially baking ones,
  • the world and travel - through my grandmother's artifacts and photographs from her travels
  • a love of Greece, a fascination for Indian textiles...
I am sure you recognise much of this from this blog. Close friends will recognise more.

Do you have a soul time which laid down your foundations? I am pretty sure if this is the magic period for all children, this window between our unconscious openness to the world of sensations as babies, and the  conscious understanding of a school aged child. It is richer than any other point, because our senses are wide open, untarnished by our "knowing" and worldly cynicism.

We experience this feeling again at the point between teenagehood and adulthood as we enter the world as adults. We also get to experience it when we travel and immerse ourselves in other cultures - perhaps this is one of the major draws of travel. We also experience it after a deep meditation. And in the first flush of love. It is as though the colours are turned up on the world, everything is brighter, more real, and the space between us and the world is smaller - it is us and we are it. We experience the unity of interbeing. This is the magic time. One which as adults we can spend our lives pursuing, this memory of richness which we have lost. Some try through drugs, through buying stuff, others through love, religion or creativity. But I sense we are all questing after that feeling, that elusive magic time.

It makes me especially mindful of the richness of the environment that our own children are growing up in. If they're anything like me, I know how vital the creative, imaginative and aesthetic atmosphere is that they drink in.

But if they're like my husband they won't remember anything before the age of 17, and this is all a big waste of energy!!

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