April 29: Explore

Had a really bad migraine (have had off and on for weeks now) last night, so the last thing I wanted to do when I got up this morning was go work with my Dad.  But I'm so glad I did, because not only was it pretty painless (only took a couple hours and I got a yummy lunch out of the deal) but we got to talk a lot and then because I was stressing out about submitting two articles for visitsouth.com, he took me by GTMNERR (Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve) and Fort Mose Historic State Park (which I'd never been to).  I couldn't stay long, but I got a thrill gathering my pamphlets, walking quickly through (and vowing to return when I could take my time) and getting some good pics.
     It's amazing how our lives can become so insular with the daily stresses, emotions, and worry that permeate our lives.  If we aren't careful, we can become a completely self-absorbed, self-obsessed, detached person, oblivious to the wonder and beauty around us.  Sometimes we need to take a few minutes, or hours, or even days, rediscovering life.  So go someplace new, take a different route when you walk, turn down that untraveled road, you never know what you'll find.
     I am a girl that loves to explore, but I don't do it often enough.  I go through phases of loving a place and walking it's road, getting to know it as if it's a person, sometimes missing places as if they are people I have loved and lost.  And as time goes by and I visit some places over again, some of them seem so different, depending on what we've both been through since the last time we met.  I hope I can keep my gypsy spirit, because some of the best things in my life have come to me because of it, and I'm sure there's more amazing things to come.

“We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started... and know the place for the first time.” ~T.S. Eliot