I know a place

Somewhere between dream and reality I have a place that I would go to. The space was outside the confines of society and its structures but still within the physical matter of reality. There you would feel temperature. It got cold sometimes. There it was dark. The only light was from what entered through the windows with no curtains. A place where being clothed or completely naked was entirely within reason. Like being at the bottom of an empty well, there didn’t seem to be any time there and without that basis, rules did not exist.

This well bottom is my third place.

The concept of a third place is an idea from sociology that describes the space where people exist outside of their home and work. In this place is where one builds their identity for themselves. A space for exchanging ideas, having fun and building relationships. A space for escape, rest and to emotionally recharge. I like to think a true third place is where one finds oneself remembering to breathe, and forgetting that you ever were holding your breath at all. A necessary place that I’ve found helps you discover what living feels like.

This idea of spending time at the bottom of a well stuck with me since I read it in a novel called “The Wind up Bird Chronicle” by Haruki Murakami. This character climbed down into the bottom of of a dried up well not just once but many times in this novel. I couldn’t comprehend it at first, each time the author placed this character down there in the darkness I felt like I couldn’t read on; it was madness, it was ridiculous. But I couldn’t shake this thought. Anyone who knew me knew I couldn’t stop thinking about this well. I began to dream about this dried up well. What would it be like to spend time there I wondered, in a place where light does not reach, where sounds do not penetrate. What energy would surround me there? What would affect me there? I resolved that the well was not ridiculous but a beautiful concept. I found that mine was one where I could escape to in order to resolve myself.

Unlike the character in the novel I was not always alone there. Sometimes I think that the man who visited me in my third place and sat beside me might have been a figment of my imagination.

But then again he has more substance than any person I have ever met.

When I looked into his eyes I saw more than just my own reflection. I felt something coming from his eyes and into me. I felt a part of myself being sucked into his eyes just the same. I let him take it.

We sat silently sometimes. Some days we would empty our minds out completely talking until there were no words left on our tongues. When the curiosity called for it we walked in each other’s perspective until we understood the things we had yet to ever put into words.

Even when he was there I felt like I was alone. A feeling I enjoy. Without any effort at all we transformed from children, to humans, to a single thought, to a man and woman, and then to nothing at all.

I didn’t believe he wanted anything from me. And I had to keep reminding myself time and time again that I felt the same. Truly, I did. There was no want in this place. There was a need that was being fulfilled though. Deeply rooted somewhere in both of our timelines, it seemed as though the Universe had to give us this place so we could both satisfy one of our needs.

When I left that place behind I felt so full. My soul glad to have had a third place where I could simply be myself. A third place is not a place where one can stay forever but perhaps frequent for a period of their life or even just a moment until inevitably they move to their next place. I believe you find the well at the moment you need it.