Nostalgic run today. Am visiting family in village where I was born and grew up. I brought my trainers and ran this morning, #couch25k podcast, 2 x 10 minutes with fast short walk in between. A perfect day for running, slightly cool, overhead a blue sky and trees in full, lush leaf.
Just beyond the graveyard (where parents, sister and stillborn nephew silently sleep), I slipped through the familiar gap in the wall and began to run around the old meadow where in former times I walked the dog and daydreamed.
It was originally a wild flower/hay meadow, dotted with cows, but is now mostly used for sports and is tightly mown. There’s a public school in the village, begun by Jesuits decades ago. All boys when I was young and is now mixed. It’s summer so no pupils and I jogged on from the meadow to the cricket/rugby pitches. They have a new pavilion and I thought fondly of the fun we had in the old one! Not to mention making all those teas and sandwiches.
I had a crush on the captain of the 1st 11 cricket team but he wasn’t interested in me, so I dated the captain of the 1st 15 rugby. I wonder where he is now and what he is doing.
When young, I couldn’t wait to get away from this village but I feel more amiable in myself these days. For a few minutes, I envisaged living back here, jogging around the meadow with a dog. A fleeting fancy.
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