Freibad Gumpoldskirchen
One of the best things of childhood are the acuteness of the senses. Years later you can conjure up complete images of the past, including smells, sounds, light and sensations on your skin. As adults we seem to have lost a great deal of that ability to be so aware of our surroundings. Distractions and responsibilities take over that almost time-less space of just "being".
When I was little, living in Gumpoldskirchen, summer would come and inevitably I would find myself at the local public pool, like most everyone else living there. I remember the feel of the lawn on my feet and the occasionally chilly breeze on my chlorine-smelling skin, the sound of the diving board bouncing in the background, kids yelling, the smell of fried dough from the snack kiosk doubling as the check-in counter. Immediately I am transported into my 10-year-old self feeling relief that school was over and that only a few days and a long car ride were separating me from my month (or two-month) stay in Croatia.
There is not much other point to this story except that this year I got to repeat this for the very first time with my children (!). My three (!) children! I have written about this before, how when, like me, you change countries with (almost) every phase of your life, then returning to those places is like visiting yourself in prior years. But now, not only was I thrown back into my own childhood, I was at the same time watching my children repeat the experience. It was a little surreal, confusing for my brain and also exhilarating. It might be normal for most parents to watch their children roam the same streets that they grew up on, but for me, this is a highly unusual experience. It makes me feel all those years inbetween at once. Not in a bad way, luckily. And so while my kids were loving the pool, I kept remembering the little girl I was and how not in a million years would I have been able to imagine this day.
Posted at 02:11 PM on August 05, 2009
Liebe Dinka, die Erfahrungen aus der frühesten Jugend verdienen diese liebevolle gute Erinnerung, wichtig für deine und Lincolns Kinder.