Life On The Road

When I left Maine I continued on to Rhode Island and Connecticut. I must admit Connecticut was by far more favorable to haul my R-Pod and had so much more to do! I was trying to decide which route to take so that I could get to Pennsylvania but I was unsettled. I had some unfinished feelings that I needed to “deal” with… I headed back to Maine for a couple days. It was wonderful and worth the trip back!!

I then headed to Pennsylvania (Lancaster) Amish Country! I was so at peace here as I watched an entirely different type of life. A life so simple, yet so incredibly hard (yet together). I stopped often just to watch the people of different types all live in an area, yet not really interacting with each other. The beauty of this area is amazing!

From Pennsylvania I headed to Maryland and both West Virginia and Virginia. West Virginia is a VERY interesting area (I wont share of my experiences there). Virginia is full of history and at every stop I felt a new found appreciation for our country. I stopped at every quaint town along the entire journey and spent a lot of time just watching people and taking in the views.

Life on the road is amazing,
but hard also. Loneliness sneaks in at the oddest times. It passes quickly
though as I move forward. I still am in such conflict within myself. I feel I
have come along ways but I still have SO far to go. It can be frustrating and
overwhelming. Every time I talk to a teacher friend and they tell me about the
class for the year and the politics going on, I feel sick. There MUST be a
better system to balancing life and work. I realize more and more how I was
drowning in my own self-choices. Work was a force of stress (to give everything
I had in me) that I felt I owed my students and parents of those students. At
what cost though ( we give) do we need to stop and just accept that work is not
the only thing in life? That people and beautiful scenery and adventures of
interests we have need to come into play as well. Sometimes when I people
watch, I see the blank stare, the tiredness, the STRESS people carry. They live
in the beautiful places but have not even taken a moment to look up and see the
beauty that they are surrounded in. The stars, the trees, the water, the
buildings, the hills, the leaves changing colors…. They don’t see it. They
forget that these are the free, amazing things in life. Others forget they have
the most beautiful people surrounding them but never have “time” to visit or
just laugh with them. What is happening!! We take for granted the people that
love us the most, the ones that we love, the ones that carry our life burdens
with us, the ones we worry about and vice versa… but we are so wrapped in work
and so incredibly tired at the end of the day that these are the people that
are put on the back burner. I know work is important to pay the bills and live,
but at what cost do we live outside our means that we neglect the most
important people in order to sustain a lifestyle we don’t really need. When did
money become more important than love? I guess I had a lot on my mind the past
few days because of seeing the way life used to be. Work was to provide shelter
and grow a garden for food, milk cows for nourishment.. the Amish still live
this way. Our grandparents and possibly our parents lived this way. What
happened to us as a society? Have we lost touch of the importance of life? The
memories we make? The people we surround ourselves with? Where are you in life?
Do you make time for yourself and those that are important to you? Do you look
up at the moon and stars? If you answered no, then change it. Make it happen.
YOU GET ONE LIFE. ONE MOMENT. ONE. I was
drowning in it all also, but I see more clear than ever the beauty and love
around me…. I may have along way to go, but I am changing and growing and
realizing that I needed this journey not only for myself, but also for others
to realize how beautiful life is. How precious and profound we are.

You don’t need money to appreciate and seek joy. Just look up, wake up, stop the madness and find life again. Stop being afraid to make a change. JUST JUMP into this beautiful life and take a walk, smell a flower, take pictures, write in the tall grass, watch a sunset, call the people you love and laugh together, share, and stop the madness that creates all the stress.

We all have our own demands we face.  Just ask yourself… Is the cost worth what you are missing? Only you carry the answer.