A Time Called Narnia

After a wonderful vacation it’s hard to return to daily life! Do you know what I mean? What do you do to cope with getting back into the routine of existence after a momentous getaway? I try to keep the experience with me and let it elevate the rest of my life - after all, even daily things are grand when you look at them as stepping stones and building blocks.

I have a friend who first lit upon the idea of the extraordinary summer camp we both attended being comparable to Narnia. And the more I think about it, the more any special vacation is like that in a way. When I was little and first understood the time warp that occurred whenever the children went to Narnia, I thought it was such a unique notion. How did C. S. Lewis ever imagine stopping time in this world, putting his characters through an epic adventure in another world, and bringing them back to this world, still in the same instant as when they left it? But more and more I’m realizing that it mirrors the real-life sensation of going away and coming back. Time moves at a different speed (usually lightning-fast) in the “away” place; when you come back (if it hasn’t been too long) you feel like nothing in the “back” place has changed. I wonder if C. S. Lewis ever thought of it that way. Have you ever had the sensation that you left the world as you know it for a place that could be called your Narnia?