Generally speaking, revisiting familiar places after a long time can be a pleasant experience. But in certain cases, it can also be a test for us - a test to face the unexpected changes in these places, as well as our own changes inside ourselves and in our relationship to these places.
The test can be especially demanding if we know that we ourselves have undergone some fundamental changes in one or more important areas, such as our state of consciousness and worldview, and we also know that these familiar places have undergone no less fundamental changes since we were there a long time ago.
We often notice changes in other places (and people) more clearly precisely because we haven't seen them for a long time. If we see them every day, we do not always notice their changes. And noticing these changes after our long absence can, in turn, reflect back to us like a mirror those changes that must have taken place inside ourselves.
This late fall I'm planning to revisit two familiar places after a long time. I try to remain open to any surprise I may experience by noticing their changes, for better or for worse, so that I may learn as much as I can from this doubly double test.
I also have mixed feelings about my meetings with the few people with whom I have remained in touch in these two places, as well as my possible chance encounters with those with whom my relationship has faded away over time, also because of the physical distance between us.
I called this test "doubly double" not only because I'll visit two familiar places but also because I have two different, almost opposite new relationships to them since I was there last time. So the contrast that will emerge will be not only between what I remembered about them a long time ago and what I will see this time, but also between these two places.
I also consider this doubly double test a vision quest - or, to be more precise, a doubly double vision quest. Yes, a vision quest, and a doubly double one at that. ;-) You may wonder what kind of vision I seek this time. It concerns something deeply personal and is comprised of a number of delicate and complicated variables. I'll keep it between me and myself, at least until I finish (and fully "digest") it.