Brief journeys - peace in the park

I like circular journeys: those that start and finish at the same place but don't cover the same ground in both directions.

Link to photo source

I clearly recall being introduced to, and falling in love with, a verse by T.S. Eliot:

"We shall not cease from exploration,
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time."

I was awarded a book of collected quotations as a prize for a poetry submission in my primary school magazine and the librarian, Mrs Wilson, who was also my home room and English teacher chose the book for me. I remember being overwhelmed by how much wisdom both she and this book contained.

These particular lines are so well-known and often-quoted, a fact that I was unaware of at the time. To my 12 year-old self they seemed so sophisticated and profound, and to have been written just for me. I had already decided that I was going to be an oceanographer or marine biologist (inspired by Jacques Cousteau programmes on TV and my love of the sea) and travel the entire world, writing about my inner and outer experiences as I went, for the book I would eventually publish....

I didn't become a marine biologist or a travel writer, I haven't yet seen the whole world, and I didn't read the whole poem and understand the context until much later when I was at university, but these four lines have continued to resonate with me. I do believe that where I go and what I experience changes me and affects the way I relate to the people, places and ideas I return to. I love that. I travel out, I am enriched, and I return with new understanding and appreciation of both where I have been and where I have come back to. And then I set off again....

In my mind's eye I see this path more as a spiral than a series of complete circles. Overlapping routes perhaps, sometimes apparently even the same routes, but never covering exactly the same ground because I can never be exactly the same person. And I think it applies to journeys of both the physical and mental kind. Layers and circles combined. Spirals.

Even before I made this connection, spirals seemed significant to me as a motif. As long as I can remember, I've always been attracted to visuals that include spirals and have amassed quite a collection of spiral images. I often include them in my own art too. Perhaps something I'll explore and share in another post...

Photograph by Debra Gaynham

The starting point of this post was the return leg of a repeating journey, so let's get back to that. Last week we took the path out along the canal from home to my office and today I thought I would share with you some of the return route.

I tend to walk home from the office at street level, rather than back along the canal. It makes this little journey circular rather than linear. And it's also a lovely route. On the way I pass, and occasionally stop to enter, the Peace Garden.


It's beautiful. And peaceful.

I don't have a garden so I like to spend time in the city open spaces and, although this is a small park, it's one of my favourite places. Especially at the end of a long day. It allows me time to reflect and to filter out the better parts of the day to take home, and to leave the rest behind. It's a short journey, a brief reflection, but sometimes it makes all the difference.

At this time of year, the garden's full of flowering and wonderfully fragrant lavender and roses.

While I was putting these pictures together...

the combination made me think of these...


Recurring themes. My life is full of them. How about yours?