Return to Me

“Neither can the wave that has passed by be recalled, nor the hour which has passed return again.”~ Ovid

This week marks a return to my roots; a revisiting of a life I thought I had left behind for good.

One of my best friends runs a theatre company specializing in full length Shakespeare for young audiences.  This week, their Juliet is out, and my friend asked me to fill in.  It’s a one-day gig, nothing permanent.

It’s strange to feel the words in my mouth again – familiar but distant – like your family home seen through the wrong end of a telescope.  It amazes me how quickly they come back – like they’ve been lurking beneath my skin waiting to be reclaimed.  In many instances I have to do nothing more than remind myself, and like I put a quarter in the slot, I’m off to the races – iams unfolding effortlessly, the story of star-crossed lovers expanding within me.

I am not the same person I was the last time I spoke these words.  Supposedly, 7 years is enough time for every cell in my body to have replaced itself.  Certainly, my life experience is astronomically different…

So, despite the fact that the words seem to have never left me, I have something new to bring to them – a different version of me, a different viewpoint.  Already, I am putting together pieces in ways that I never saw before, making new discoveries… seeing the text and the relationships anew.

This is a vacation – nothing more than a brief sojourn – like going home for Christmas.  I love the place where I grew up, but I don’t want to live there.

Once upon a time, theatre was my passion, but healing is my calling… still, it’s nice to visit old friends, to catch up, to remember why I love them and was once compelled to make them my life.

We’ll see how it goes.

“[T]he end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” ~T. S. Eliot