Yet, there are moments when I am forced to witness and accept that there are things I have lost. Some I don't miss, some were meant to be left behind - but some I do feel the pang of their absence, specially when I witness it so very much alive and present in the lives of others.
Children, most children, carry so much wonder and magic in them that it is impossible to ignore. Have you ever seen how immersed they are in their own made up world? Whether it is fighting robots, or being princesses, or monsters? Or making up their own rules and their own codes, their own secret passages? They really don't play-pretend, they play for real.
I remember my own childhood adventures; I remember and old trunk being the entrance to a cave, and a secret button hidden between rocks in order to open a safe passage to the cave. I remember digging rocks, which to me were precious , and drawing up treasure maps to never forget where they were hidden. I remember poisonous flowers you couldn't touch, I remember acid water you had to rush through from the sprinklers. I was an adventurer, and my dream was to be Indiana Jones.
With the years, I do feel like my lens of magic and wonder has contracted. I really struggle with accepting this. I do believe that magic is real, and the world has shown me time and time again that it is wondrous. But I no longer see caves in trees; I see a tree with its own kind of magic, and rocks, I have learned through Geology classes, although not really gems are insanely intricate and unique.
But last week, that child, that little adventurer came back with such vigor that I could see it again; I could see the world she used to live in, and it was real.
Before visiting the temples of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, I had seen the pictures and I had it in myself that it was going to be a very new sight for me. These weren't like the temples I'm used to seeing in Korea, nor like the ones back in China - these were a totally new thing for me, and for that only I had build up really high expectations of the place.
And they delivered - they truly did. They are unbelievable, they are so majestic and sublime- but I wasn't prepared for the effect that the place would have in me.
And they delivered - they truly did. They are unbelievable, they are so majestic and sublime- but I wasn't prepared for the effect that the place would have in me.
All of those adventures I had a child, that aspirant Indiana Jones, came swirling back. And this time, I was really there. I mean, really really there.
As one of the main attractions - actually the biggest attraction in Cambodia, it is packed with tourists from 4:00am in the morning to watch the sunrise until nightfall. Yet, the place never feels overcrowded. No matter if you go by yourself, or in a tour, the temples are set up in a way to allow you to explore them wherever your little explorers' heart desires. The temples are surrounded by wild, unkempt jungle, they are the temples of monkeys who walk alongside the roads as casually as if it were their home.
Ta Phrom temple has trees growing on it, destroying it and crumbling it down to the ground. It is the perfect setting for your wildest adventures - and it's real. The crushed walls of the temple allow you to jump and make your way through it without keeping to the main hallways; there are parts of murals missing and there are faces hidden in the walls.
The time I spent in Cambodia was very limited, and the time spent in the temples of Angkor way even more so. Even so, it was enough to broaden my view of the world once more, to give me the eyes of the child I once was.
I have always liked to say that I like to go on adventures - going to explore a new park, getting to a new mountain, trying out a new recipe or a new restaurant - it's all an adventure. Life is an adventure. I will fight to keep that perspective for as long as I live. And now, I will continue to hum the Indiana Jones theme for all of my adventures. For I have lived it; the fantasy is real. And once again, the world has shown me that it is magical and full of wonders.
