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“When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.”
― John Lennon

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There are times when the past

seems to be a figment

of

our carefully crafted for an audience

anecdotes about it.

.

My mother

unlike John Lennon’s

did not tell me that

the key to life was happiness

if she had maybe I too would have given the answer he gave

when asked what I wanted to be

instead I said that

I wanted to love

and be loved

when I grew up

(what I actually said was that I wanted to be a helicopter pilot

which was just as challenging a goal

considering that

I often don’t know the right

from the left

and which way is up)

.

The key in the photo

is one which was left hanging

when Steve and I

vacated a house

in which we had lived for over a decade

to move into a new abode

one which we hope will slowly become our home

for the rest of our lives.

.

I took a series of photographs of the move

of the old place

once we had taken away all of our stuff

which wasn’t as much as it had seemed

out of it

and of the new place

before we moved our stuff

and ourselves

in

most of the shots

which I took

are dark

stark

and

lifeless

except for the key.

.

The key left hanging in the old home

is similar to the key which fits in the keyhole of our new home

what we leave behind is sometimes similar to what lies ahead

but it isn’t the same.

.

“I’ve got the key to my castle in the air, but whether I can unlock the door remains to be seen.”
― Louisa May Alcott

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