Labyrinth. A single word that brings to mind convolutions, twists. Nothing is as it seems. Don't take things for granted.
There are other words too. Single words that have multiple meanings.
Friendship.
Magic.
Love.
Such simple things, these words… But, tie them together and the subtleties can bring about crushing change.
"I have a dream."
"Murphy's Law."
"You have no power over me."
But after the change… What then? A period of adjustment. Testing the boundaries. Seeking the familiar in the new, or is that seeking novelty in what is comfortable?
Eventually, things settle into stability. For what else is 'normal' than simply a duration looking through a different viewpoint? That which was the edge is now softer, familiar… easier to slide to the back of the mind.
When I was a child, I played with childish things. Now that I am a man, I put these childish things away. But they are still there, aren't they? Even if the childish things are no longer in your closet, they remain, don't they?
Memory is a tricky thing. Quite deceitful to tell the truth. Different things can bring one up from the morass in the back of one's mind.
A whisper of song long forgotten.
A glimmer, a sparkle, a familiar pattern of wild hair.
A certain warmth that is not warm, coming from nothing.
Just because the things you put away as childish toys are no longer in your sight, in your mind constantly, does not mean you are not in theirs.
And sometimes, many years down the road, memory comes roaring up. Some things happen that rip away the comfortable softness of those familiar old thoughts. You find your childish toy. It has been waiting. But now, older, you find it no longer is content to stay a toy.