Layers

So many layers to life. Personalities. Organizations. Buildings. Landscapes. Dimensions of all sorts. Meanings of all types. They come at you at whizzing speeds. Do I come at others in a whizz? Hmmm.

I have a dear friend who travels a lot. She embraces experiences both foreign and domestic. Some are challenging in their differentness; some are comfortable in allure of newfound familiarity. The Southwest United States is a magnet for her. The desert, art forms, landscapes, mountains, animal life, flora – the entire montage of life there. It excites her. Her imagination is on full alert. The camera comes out to keep a nanosecond of it alive forever. It does that for her, but also for others who are privileged to view the results.

She has journeyed to Europe in many places, especially a river cruise far into the Eastern European countries with breathtaking vistas and histories. Currently she is on a 3-week odyssey of Australia and New Zealand. The land of mysteries and Hobbit kings and all sorts of Tolkien creatures. Magical. Breathtaking settings that make pale much of what we treasure here in the United States. She lives among the layers of these places.

And we live our lives in and through the layers of life. Time, place, climate, family, friends and others.

All of it is expansive in meaning. We grow our own meaning from it; impart some meaning to it, too.

Learning to live with people is the challenge. All so different. Some easy to be with. Others a task to abide. Still others who partner in thought and deed to make good things happen. These are blessings; some are just too difficult to take for long. Both good and bad. And everything between.

Especially the everythings in-between.

Maybe it is the everythings that are the layers?

I wonder? I’ll have to think on that for awhile.

Until then, smile sweetly on the day.

November 14, 2018