a ghost among those trees

Other places that Arenas led me to were far more familiar and comforting - confirming the fact that while we live in different worlds shared human experience runs between us all.

Together we smiled at our memories of eating dirt as children - and making it central in much of our early play.

‘To dig out the earth was to discover unusual treasures like pieces of colored glass, snail shells, and shards of pottery.’

We clung together through our craving to stay ever close to the sea - which offered escape both mentally and physically for Arenas (in his attempt to swim away to neutral waters).

‘no one can feel despair when facing such beauty and vitality.’

We drifted away together on wild wings of recollection at our love of dreamtime.

‘To go to bed and switch off the light has been for me to submit to a totally unknown world, full of delicious as well as sinister promises.’

And we nodded together in acknowledgement of the irony that only once it is gone do we come to miss that which we spend our entire life trying to leave behind.

the circumnavigator