One of the inspirations for my Embodied Book Club

I mostly remember my childhood as summer. A summer so spacious that it felt it would last forever. And in a way, it did.

You see, Bulgarian school holidays are two and a half to three and a half months long, depending on which class you just finished. Parents send off their children to their grandparents whenever possible, and if you were as lucky as I was, your grandparents would be living in a village nearby, where time slows down until it almost stops, and all of your senses suck out the entirety of every experience.

I never needed a wardrobe to Narnia, everything in the village of Chiren was made of magic.

The picture above, though taken decades later, was part of my view from the top floor which was my usual hiding spot. It was a peculiar hiding spot as I was close enough to the world to observe it, but far enough to enjoy being alone with my imagination. My grandparents usually knew where I was (whenever not climbing trees or daydreaming under a tree), and they let me be, doing my thing for as long as I wanted.

I was reading books (all of the ones on my school’s recommendation list for the summer, and even more on top, which I randomly discovered in the library or on the dusty shelves with forgotten treasures in the attic). I was also writing books (even if never finishing), and fairytales, poems, short stories, love letters, dreams lists, diaries...

In those endless summers I was lying there above the rooftops, happy and free, with no fence to restrain me, just an open platform above the life below.

The most creative time in my life.

There was a lot more magic in those summers in Chiren, but for today as the summer where I am nearly ends, I am just holding the image of myself reading and writing up there on that unfinished rooftop terrace, and reconnecting with the creative life force energy that once filled up my entire being. As I am writing this, I feel how that fire rises again through my body, waking up the sleeping beauty of creative self-expression in me.

This vision is one of the inspirations behind my Embodied Book Club idea I am releasing into the world. But more about that another time.

When you get older, there are less and less people and places that still carry the essence of your childhood. People move away or die. Places get passed on or fall apart. But you can always access who you used to be, and inhabit your magic again. I hope that you do. And maybe you feel like sharing about it in the comments below. :)

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Content piece originally posted on my Substack.