past, present, and future

Nostalgia. It is present in the way the sun brushes white houses with wooden shutters and lush grass in the yard, a crab-apple tree nearby. It is children's laughter. It is our joy. It is the summer-afternoon feeling of childhood, about climbing the mulberry tree, and the water-filled birdbath in the jungle yard; secret passageways; secret worlds. Nostalgia is a dear friend.

It is inspiration. Love of the past, of memories, of the present, of the future in which more extraordinary and miraculous things will be. Nostalgia in the rumbling of carriage-wheels imagined over dirt paths winding through countryside, centuries ago. It does not seem so far away.