The Age of Magic

‘Do you know what the luckiest thing is?’
‘No.’
‘It is to be at home everywhere.’

We arrive at our destination before we arrive at our revelation.’

When we travel we take our troubles for a walk.

Our past obscures our future, Lao thought, grimly. We travel forwards, but live backwards. Travelling is no escape; only the panorama changes. We are stuck in ourselves. There is no escape, but maybe there can be a change of direction. Maybe true travel is not the transportation of the body, but a change of perception, renewing the mind.

There’s wisdom in repetition, in going to the same place often, seeing the same painting again and again, re-reading a much loved book.’

‘Most people would say repetition is boring.’

‘The young maybe.’

Do you know what the luckiest thing is?

No.

It is to be at home everywhere.

Some things only become clear much later.

People are afraid of what they dont know.

What can you do with all this beauty? The frosted peaks, the silver lake, the light, this dawn?’ Lao asked. ‘It fills my heart, I want to do something with it, and I don’t know what.’

‘I think the first seeing, the first mis-reading is the truest.’

‘Why? You didn’t think so before. You used to say thrice is once.’

‘I still do. But I think something of our deeper selves lives in the magic of first encounters. We try later to recapture that first enchantment, but only rare experiences reawaken it.’