Rock and a Hard Place, You Say?

Have you ever felt like you’re going nowhere? Doing the things you’ve always done and knowing that not a single one of them is getting you anywhere? I’ve pretty much done this run before — or even a gazillion times.

So yes, I know that feeling too well … but that’s not what I’m here for. What I’m here for is change. And though it isn’t easy, we all need it now and then. In fact I think the older we get, the more important it is.

So tell me, how do you jump into change, and how does it affect you? Scary? Delicious? Much easier than expected? Shoot me now? I think the decision is the hard part, and the jumping is the easy part. And I have ZERO doubt that most of us become so very much happier after the jumping. I know I have.

What’s changed me the most? Without a doubt, travel. Getting out there and seeing, learning, sharing, throwing off your “usual” and jumping into everything that moves you. And you know why?

Because being stuck between two huge rocks is never the answer.

@pamgoodewrites/sophieswildhair
Image taken by Pam Goode, in Ireland.

Fall Color Wheels

I’ve just returned from a visit with my sister in Virginia, and the October slant of the sun is currently pickling even the lowliest subject matter into a sparkling celebrity in Fall’s Five Minutes of Fame. I’m a snap and run kinda girl, not by nature but by practice, stealing as many shots as I can while companions wait with varying degrees of patience ten paces ahead.

Not every face is lovely, but this one is Beyond Beautiful. Ancient Indian elephant, Wise Woman, patterns of dew-starved earth? Fall colors steal the show, but I’ve always been a sucker for the overlooked.

Eden at Edisto

Edisto Road

Love or hate The South, it just doesn’t get much lovelier (or haunting, haunted, seductive, or psychically altering) than this. I took the above photograph along a back road on Edisto Island. There’s no resort around the bend; in fact, Edisto Beach doesn’t boast a single hotel. Rent a cottage, a cabin in the woods, or snare a beachfront campsite and stare into these trees for an hour or a day, and tell me your soul hasn’t been abducted, pinned and wriggling to the wall.