Walking Into The Past

When I moved back to Phoenixville, the house I moved into (as a renter) was at the edge of the neighborhood where I hung out for all of my school years.  One of the things I started doing pretty quickly was taking daily walks. I had two reasons for this; one, for health reasons (become more physically active), and two, to explore the neighborhoods where I spent my childhood. 

Growing up, Phoenixville was a dying steel mill town just outside of the Philadelphia suburbs. When the steel mill completely closed down in the 1980s, the town had the typical air of a town disconnected from it's past and no clue about it's future. When I moved to Rochester in 2007, not much had changed; but there were some seeds of revitalization which ended up taking hold in a big way. Now, Phoenixville has been noted as one of the hot spots of the Greater Philadelphia area, in terms of nightlife and family living.  So, with my exploring nature, I wanted to spend some time revisiting these areas.

One of the things that struck me on my various walks were, well, actually two things.  First; everything seemed to be so much smaller than I remembered; the houses, the streets, the parks, schools, everything! It caught me a little by surprise at how small things appeared now, compared to when I was a smaller, younger kid.



Everything, that is, except for trees - those seemed to be bigger, taller. For example, when I was a kid, we planted a couple of trees in our backward. I stood in the parking lot behind my old back yard, amazed as how those trees now tower over not only our former backyard, but over the yards of the neighbors on either side. It was somewhat surreal, to have scenes in front of me similar to my memory, and yet different at the same time. 

In addition to those things, there were areas in town which I could not get to back then, or were not allowed to get to, for one reason or another.  The biggest example is the old steel mill property: in my childhood, it was fenced off with No Trespassing signs, with the standard you-don't-know-what-goes-on-back-there-and-you're-not-going-to-find-out-or-else warning from my parents. Today, that property is open, with a hiking/biking trail running through it, and in one area, a brand-new apartment complex.

All of that walking and exploring (or re-exploring) got me to thinking...

...isn't this how life works? The older we get, our perspectives shift over time. Things that we thought were big, far away, out of reach when we were kids eventually become manageable, in front of us and within reach. What we once thought was impossible in many cases became not only possible, but actual completed achievements. And yet, other things which seemed small and insignificant in time grow to be important. We realize that the small details we may have brushed off now shape and grow into large and important pillars to lean on and protect us. 

And in addition, things that were closed off to us, sometimes open up and reveal surprises that we didn't imagine before. When we were kids, we had boundaries where we were allowed to go, and where we weren't. As we became older, those boundaries expanded, and as adults, our boundaries are endless. With expanding boundaries and open minds, we have new thoughts, new concepts, new ideas; it's amazing what a little time, a little new knowledge, and a new or shift in perspective, can bring to this journey called life.

Some things we thought were important when we were younger ended up not being important at all. And vice-versa; some things that we didn't think meant a thing, end up being quite influential.

And with that...I keep walking forward...

_________________________________________________________________

“We leave something of ourselves behind when we leave a place, we stay there, even though we go away. And there are things in us that we can find again only by going back there.” 
― Pascal Mercier, Night Train to Lisbon

“…everything has a past. Everything – a person, an object, a word, everything. If you don’t know the past, you can’t understand the present and plan properly for the future.” 
― Chaim Potok, Davita's Harp

“You invoke a new future
when you envision your past
in the light of your present.” 
― Eric Micha'el Leventhal