“There is no such place as Far Away”

This is the title of a book I am yet to read, gifted to me for my recent birthday.
The title could easily be my mantra.
I have always yearned to go there,  Far Away.
A place of evergreen fields wrapped in a blanket of mist and mystery.
The problem with that Far Away place though is that once you get there, it is no longer what it promised to be.
Because once you get there, well obviously there is no longer that physical distance between yourself, your worries, problems, anxieties and that Far Away place.
But in a non physical reality, it is as wonderful a place as your own imagination allows it to be and void of anything painful or mundane.
This I believe, is essentially the attraction of Far Away.
Throughout my life I have been to my own versions of Far Away.
Recently, I left one Far Away place and traveled to another one, and I think doing this is in a way similar to a moth flying towards the light, over and over again, without getting anywhere in particular.
I once read that moths fly towards the light because they are looking for a way up to the moon.
The moon… this beautiful ghostly pale mother of all mothers that beams her protective powers and light down upon us mortals whilst we sleep, write and paint in the night.
The moon… that really is the Far Away place of all places and seems truly magical indeed..
But the moon that we see in the sky is so far away the earthly moth will never in a thousand lifetimes get there.
And worse even, if it did, the moth would feel disenchanted once it does get there,
because it will see that the moon is but a gigantic hostile rock, merely reflecting the light of the sun.
The moon in itself does not radiate some magical light, it simply mirrors the light of another place,
her light is a mirage that physically exists only in another body in the universe, the sun,
another place that is yet again, very very far away.
I can only come to the conclusion that the essence of Far Away may well be distilled in the dreaming about it,
and it is in that sense not an earthly place we can travel to, but a place that exists in our own mind.
A place that is seven dimensional, full of tiny golden stars that sing the tiniest of songs in perfect harmony.
Where you can smell the warm golden glow of the sweetest of sounds and where you can remember your perfect memories.
This Far Away place of the mind-universe is essential to my life and my work, and I believe it is why I love so much what I do, creating and making.
It is my way of giving a physical reality, shape and texture to my own version of that enchanted Far Away place.
To make it into a tangible illusion, a Fata Morgana for the soul to quench its thirst.
Blending that strange fantastical illusion with my daily reality makes me feel a little closer to my own enchanted Far Away.
And that is what I long to be: enchanted, like a child that dances in the slow motion snow drops for the first time.
So then, when you do this, and I think most artists, writers and poets do, you slowly create a second self, one that lives on the fringes of the mind, one who is a little more free from the worldly reality. A bit translucent and pale, with one foot in the other world of mist and mystery. One day I hope to become that translucent creature entirely and fly away through the chimney of that little house in the woods, towards the moon.
Only not the real moon, but the one from the imagination.

x P x