Space Between

I’m still amazed at how we are able to cross oceans and continents in such a short space of time - to be in one world one minute, and another the next. Our body clocks just have to catch up.

And maybe our wardrobes too. Right now I’m sitting with my fur-lined Ecco lace-up boots and down coat having come from a very white and wintry Toronto to a Spring-like London. I might as well be on a tropical holiday considering the extreme changes in temperature!

Transitioning from one place to another used to feel like stepping into another world, where one place was temporarily abandoned for another, the space between feeling rather huge. But in the last years the bridge between these two domains has become stronger through more frequent and longer stays, and the two are brought together more closely in my life, despite the miles between.

I wonder what a boat journey across the ocean would be like, where the travel falls in sync with the time and days going by. Real time. Maybe it should be tried.

A natural switchover seems to happen mid-flight, if one is awake enough to notice. The first half of a journey is one of processing and reflecting on the time spent in the place I’ve just departed from. The second half shifts to thoughts of anticipation of what is ahead, wondering, planning….

The key is not to run ahead of myself in the thinking and just go with real time. I look forward to stepping back into my studio here in Scotland and developing ideas that have been percolating in my head (probably literally because I’ve been drinking far too much coffee lately).

They say home is where the heart is, and I realise my heart can be in Canada and in Scotland equally, and other places too. But it’s the people that bring the sense of home wherever I am.