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Full circle

So it has come a full circle.

Tonight, after more than 15 years, I've returned to the town of my childhood and youth. 

It's a Saturday night, and I was expecting some vibrant "night life".

I took a walk about 8pm, and strolled a couple of blocks up the main street. 

About half way along the first block, I pass a middle aged woman gently swaying in the opposite direction up the street. 

"It's xxxking cold", she spits to no one in particular. 

Three or four steps behind her was a man who also had his fair share of alcohol.

He gazed past me as he passed me, and I looked at him, trying to read his expression.

I heard the man mutter something, and I had the sense he was referring to me.

"Just stop", I heard the woman rasp visciously.

 I did not look back.  

In a different life, this was a familiar experience on this street. 

Exactly where I had passed the woman, I had engaged in a viscious verbal altercation. 

The interaction had almost resulted in a fight. 

One of my companions was watching, and he was excited. 

'Looks like there's going to be blood on the footpath tonight' he said to one of the onlookers who had stopped to watch. 

I was so wild, and my companion was unperturbed and matter of fact.

Somehow, we walked away without trading blows but it was close.

I'm not surprised that this energy arose here once again. 

The man and the woman were a gift.

To present the test, which much always come at the end of a cycle. 

In my heart, I heard the questions arise:

Have you learned?

Have you grown?

Have you evolved to the next level?

The answers cannot be faked. 

The answers cannot be given in words.

Action is the only way to respond.

As I look back over the last 25 years since I left WA, and in particular the last 15 years since I visited Bunbury, I realise that I am not the same person who drove away from here.

The town feels familiar, and the old buildings hint at the stories and mysteries that would be revealed if they could talk.

I left here those many years ago, and I was naive and young. The best thing about this place was the road out, and I departed to "seek my fortune".

As TS Eliot said: We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.

I've done some exploring, and I return different.

I have moved forward, in many different directions, but always forward. 

And as the circle closes tonight, I'm happy to meet myself as if for the first time. 

The road here is different now, but so am I. 

And as the sun rises tomorrow, I look forward to the next opportunities that I choose to manifest in my journey.

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