The Familiarity of the Unfamiliar
// February 1st, 2010 // Blogging
“Nothing is so awesomely unfamiliar as the familiar that discloses itself at the end of a journey.”
~Cynthia Ozick
A couple of years before I left my hometown to go study in another city, I got the feeling from time to time, that it was the town itself pushing me away. Like all those little details that made me think that I would never find a place to love more, suddenly didn’t matter. Or they were transformed into bad things, flaws that ruined my day, all sorts if nuisances that where not worth their trouble.
Now, after 4 years of stay in this lovely – but with its own nuisances – island, with 1 or 2 years left for my studies, I’m considering my return. For many reasons. Mostly professional. But that’s not my point here. When I visit for vacation, and go downtown or take a walk at my old neighborhood, it seems as though it’s a completely different place. Of course 4 years is not a short time for a place to change. But there’s something in the atmosphere that was never there before, no matter how many new buildings or people came to be during the years of my life there.
I think there’s only one good explanation to this. It’s not really the place that changed so much. It’s me. The new me. The new self that got out of the nest, out of the safety and jumped right into the sea of endless possibilities. Where choices matter and responsibility is a mountain that opens two doors: the door of strength and the door of burden. I chose the first one.
The end of this journey is a familiar place, a familiar friend wearing his/her clothes inside-out. I believe some of you have felt it at some point. If not, I suggest that you try at least to find a way to distance from something that doesn’t seem to fulfill its purpose in your life anymore. A work, a place, a relationship… And maybe later on, if you get back to it, both of you might be at the same phase, resonating the same energies again, compatible. If not, I guess you grew apart… or it never was the right thing in the first place.
But which will be your choice of door?
