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CONVERGENCE SPRINGS
… of ideas, memories, people
Thursday Mar. 6, 2014
Reach, grasp, imagine.
Embarkation, communication – someone new, or restoring connection with someone we’d lost – inspiration leaps out of nowhere.
Imagination comes alive, again, especially when it has been stifled, stored, shuffled or shuttered away like something stored over winter, needs to be dusted off, to have fresh air breathed into it.
Leftover winter freeze or spring chill has no impact on that brand of warmth.
Communication is that interaction between one person and another, or with a group. It takes many forms, requires a stage or platform, lights and cameras. Or just a pencil.
Discovery, when scientists do it, requires a laboratory, data, equipment and much study. Or, just a pencil.
Discovery, when writers to it, requires a quiet room, a keyboard, a non-reflective screen and a reliable computer equipment. Or, just a pencil.
I have no plans which are rigid, I have no rules except ones I make – I have no life except this one I live, and it feels like a door that swings both in and out, people come and go. Some stay a while. Some stay a while longer. Some leave and never come back.
Some, perhaps, return when it is springtime in the Rockies.
Aging man (or woman I suppose), like maturing cheese – as we age we develop richer flavour and possibly deeper meaning. We do not know what joys will come into our days in ways we never expected, or deserved. Sometimes that takes the form of a welcome exchange with a potential new friend, or delight at the resurfacing of an dear old one. Sometimes one other between.
Lucky me, I get all three.
Mark Kolke
198,592
column written/ published from Calgary
morning walk: -17C / 1F. light snow falling which makes everything suicidal/treacherous wherever we walk, Gusta seems to be liking the skate-like experiences and I can’t wait to weekend melting. Traffic, is moving well but every pedestrian is choosing their path and steps very carefully.
Reader feedback / comments always welcome:
I - We. We are all in this together. With welcome mats. That's a nice image. It can be a struggle to know where the thresholds for those mats can be, what they mean, and what they might lead to. A welcome mat out in the middle of an empty field can be seen as just an oddity. Could have hoofprints, or teethmarks -- maybe. Your footprints or mine -- unlikely. A welcome mat at the foot of a door that is welded shut won't see much traffic. Maybe a few impressions from those who knock, or scratch their heads in puzzlement. Not much else. Welcome mats can appear in interesting places. Diane runs a coffee shop I used to frequent. Not now -- patterns have changed; paths no longer cross. But I've known her as proprietor for more than a decade. We haven't seen or spoken with each other for at least a year -- but I dreamed about Diane last night. First time ever, as far as I know. There she was, in her coffee shop. She was very happy to see me, and I her. Smiling as she has always done, she took my hands and looked straight into my eyes. "Hi, stranger!" she said. "I wanted to tell you something." Diane always had what I thought was an unusual way of encircling and gently squeezing a person's fingers on both hands -- just the fingers. She stepped close and leaned over so that our right cheeks touched ever so lightly. I could smell her faint perfume. "It's always the smallest things that count the most," she almost whispered. With that, she stepped back again, smiling so radiantly, blue-grey eyes glowing like diamonds. I awoke in an instant. And will drive to Diane's coffee shop today. It's good that things, both big and small, can appear in the most interesting of ways. And yes, her shop really does have a welcome mat at the threshold. I just never really noticed it before. Cheers, BE, Calgary, AB
Thanks for the article. My mind is becoming mush lately and I need to start doing something about that. Not sure what however. I am feeling a need for something that will get my brain moving more after what has been a lazy winter (or maybe it has been longer than the winter). And yes I am still in Myrtle Beach. Lately it has been too cold for even golf or walking on the beach. I am back catching up on your musings and enjoying it once again . And I am and will continue to search for what has become lost in my life. I have found much that is new and wonderful but there remains a longing for much of the great I have had in my life and have no longer, SC, Fredericton, NB
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