Traveling Shoes

Yesterday it snowed.  I was at home, compliments of the school district's 'Voice of Snowdays' ~ which warned me in the wee hours of inclement weather.  The roads were clear fairly early and while transportation was no longer problematic, the windchill was something akin to a single degree.  Just a day before, the temperature was in the low 50s, and it will be so again by early next week.  Only in my neck of the Midwest!  The afternoon found me traveling to meet my best friend from high school, the one who has known me longest, the one who for years was the twin bound to me with an invisible thread.  She arrived by way of a turbulent plane ride from Bozeman, Montana.  I love this girl.  I always will...

I have been reminded of late that sometimes those we've loved the dearest never really go away, regardless of the miles between us.  At other times, those closest to us are the ones who are farthest away.  There are several personal stories attached to that sentiment, but for now I am thinking of another friend who is anticipating an unanticipated change of path:

March on. Do not tarry. To go forward is to move toward perfection. March on, and fear not the thorns, or the sharp stones on life's path. 

~Khalil Gibran

As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives. ~Henry David Thoreau

The path of least resistance and least trouble is a mental rut already made. It requires troublesome work to undertake the alternation of old beliefs. 

~John Dewey

Sometimes it is sweet, even humbling, to return to the yesterdays when things were simpler, less complicated.  Like in the days of teddy bears.  And too-big earphones.  With only the irritation of a flashbulb spotting your view.

xo, ~S.

ab hinc

Two months is a long time to be gone.  I've missed this blog.  It has, at times, been difficult to stifle the urge to be creative here.  And then at other times, I've completely forgotten this outlet for days and weeks on end.  Even so, I have written more than ever before in these past four months.  My mind has been occupied and my pen rarely dormant, but academia held sway over my words. 

The holidays were here and gone and I hardly noticed.  Just weeks before Christmas, my beloved grandmother passed away.  We should all have one person who knows how to bless us despite the evidence, Grandmother was that person to me. ~Phyllis Theroux  It is surreal to think that I no longer have grandparents here on earth.  It is especially difficult to see the sadness in my mother's eyes.  For now, she is lost in a routine that no longer includes the need to tend to my grandmother's care.  

 Sometimes transitions can be so sad.

On another note, I recently met up with a dear pal.  There is nothing like an unexpected text, an invitation to come out from beneath the textbooks to enjoy a bit of camaraderie, to lighten the mood.  Somehow she knew I needed just that...an escape.  How rare and wonderful is that flash of a moment when we realize we have discovered a friend. ~William Rotsler Sarah is genuine and kind.  Our connection has history.  It is one of the things I like about her.  All experience is an arch, to build upon. ~Henry B. Adams  As I reflect, I am reminded that sometimes It's luck that one thing works out and one doesn't, it's sort of happenstance. ~Richard Linklater Thank you, Sarah, for the laughter.  You always make it feel like a hug.

Sometimes transitions can be such blessings.

Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
~T.S. Eliot

xo, ~S.