The prospect of a leisurely walk in the woods on a cool afternoon, all by oneself, is so inviting to one’s soul that it is almost magical, what with winding pathways disappearing in woods, pleasant tweets of birds, bumbling brooks, tiny bridges, mellow sunlight filtering through trees, some cottages with smoky chimney in far distance with backdrop of hills….and a wonderful possibility of meeting a stranger once again…..

A very similar picture conjures up in my mind whenever I slip into nostalgia. Coming to think of it, this word “nostalgia” has so much power over my mind that the more I ponder over it the more I am engrossed, embedded, and momentarily lost in the entangling twines of this enchanting word’s fantastic world.

Even before one has fully uttered this word in one’s mind, triggered may be by a sound, song, aroma, picture, incidence and what not , one is already on one’s way to the past, revisiting a favorite spot or pathway in the woods among the many.

In Nostalgia you have the magical ability of not only visiting but also of dwelling as much as you may want to, even more than you did in the actual past. You cannot change the past but in nostalgia you can adopt a different angle, a view point from a different perspective which you could not do in real time earlier and enjoy the numerous possibilities.

I sometimes think that revisiting the past this way and in right perspective can even offer therapeutic advantages and can even improve and enrich the present state of mind. Research has already shown that going backwards, far too backwards right up to past lives as in transgression techniques and controlled hypnosis, have offered new perspectives and tangible results for this life.

“Nostalgia” is thus like a joker in tarot or playing cards with an unprecedented “game changing” power and hence it is always magical to me. It is like a gift of a “wormhole” to an interstellar time traveler making seemingly impossible plausible.

Many a times with the aid of this “game changer” I slip into the woods of nostalgia and revisit the yesteryears to the extent I could go , meet the younger me who seems like a stranger at times……..I also meet few others, some of whom are no more a part of my present life…. I think of the situations at certain milestones from different viewpoints and wonder how life would have been different if few decisions were taken differently and some people had continued to be part of present life…

The kaleidoscope of nostalgia revelations continue to enamor and fascinate thus….and somewhere in one of the pathways I find myself smiling and accepting and loving the way actual life has unfolded itself…

The smoke in the distant chimney is inviting even you for a tete-a-tete over tarts and tea. Would you like to join? The table has been laid!