Some wildflowers alongside the bike path near my home. Again, I’m not sure of the name, but are a bright, cheerful reminder of the good things in life.
The husband asked me the other day when my next blog post was going to be and I said I didn’t know. Thus why this is my second post in two days. I hope these pictures inspire me to keep writing and sharing.
A common flower that I found during my last trip to North Carolina, the Hawthorn flower reminds me of the old aristocratic south. It almost has a gothic aura about it.
Snow didn’t come as often in the town I grew up in. Of course, when I was a child, there seemed to be snow (and snow days) all the time. One memorable year, we left school for Christmas break in December and didn’t come back to school until February because of all the snow. My dad and I would go outside and build snowmen and snow angels; then, he’d either take me sledding or pull me around the block in my sled while wearing horse bells. You can imagine how crazy it made the dogs during that time.
As the years went by, snow came by less and if it did, it didn’t stick or stay for very long. Our winters became very mild. Even though I’m not a fan of the cold or being out on icy roads, I missed seeing the snow during the holidays. It made it so much happier and joyful.
And then I moved further north in my state. What a difference a couple of hours makes! It seems we had snow every other week. Our snow had finally melted last week and over the last few of days our snow has arrived again. It’s kind of nice being out in the snow sometimes. On Saturday, my husband and I went to the park with the dog. It was so peaceful to walk through the snowy woods and watch the dog leap and bound over snowy logs. I was so surprised to see him do this as he doesn’t like to be out in the snow for very long any other time. His senses must have kicked in overtime.
I enjoy watching the snow fall through my many windows. Occasionally a squirrel or two will bound across the yard and it’s so cute to see.
It doesn’t make me want to move up to Alaska, but at least it makes me appreciate the beauty of a season I don’t stop to enjoy very often.
My husband took this picture while he was out. Fall harvest is upon us.
On a nice fall day, even the bees want to come out to enjoy the flowers.
Morning fog can make us feel a little out of this world.
Sometimes I wonder what it means to live fully in the world that I’m in.
Does it mean going out and traveling the world, to see the people and places that have never been discovered?
Does it mean to be politically active in a society with conflicting and polarizing opinions?
Does it mean to be a homebody, living the life of one to continuously clean, rearrange, and organize?
Does it mean to be a part of the community you live in, to eat, watch movies, laugh at comedians? To have a family?
What does it mean to just be?
One of my favorite (recent) movies is Me Before You. One of the last words that Will Traynor tells Louisa is to live boldly, to just live. To not be content with the life you were given and experience the world as only you can. But how does one even do that, you know? How does one just live?
Maybe how we just live is how we make it out to be.
Whatever makes us happy is how we should be living our lives. Experience the world and make it our own. Love everyone and be content, yet live boldly. I don’t think there’s a way to just live, except how we interpret it.
Mine, I hope, will be full of more adventures, that with my husband and my dog. To travel the world, to see nature, to see the historical achievements of the world. That, to me, would be living boldly. And yet, I’m content to be a homebody. So maybe I’m in the middle, one who goes out into the world and then comes back to recharge and love on my family.
What does it mean to you to just live?
