Nomad exploring life wherever I am
My first time at Gettysburg was a quick day trip in 90 degrees of heat and humidity, left hand in a cast, on my way to somewhere else. I hadn’t really known what to expect of the place. I was pretty thin on the history of the Civil War and of this battle in particular. One of my nephews had been big on Civil War dioramas in his youth, and, honestly, that was my only reason for stopping by. I figured I’d snap a few pics to text to him, get a postcard or two. After two hours that day,…
Energy is definitely one of those things that flows both ways with me. Last weekend, I was full of energy, sparked in large part by being at a retreat with generous and intelligent women writers. I left there Monday, my head full of ideas and my heart full of support and kindness. This weekend, I’m mellowing out. I’m currently sitting outside under grey skies that threaten to spit a bit of rain on me, but I’m not moving till it happens. I can hear the birds better out here, from the raucous crows to the sweet trills of that unknown…
I’ve been a driving fool the past week, making a 900-mile round trip just to attend a women writers’ retreat at the northwest end of Virginia. From Huntsville to Knoxville and the very nice TVA campground at Melton Hill Dam… …to a pull-through site at Hungry Mother State Park, where I had my visit last fall cut short by Hurricane Florence… …to a crazy busy privately-owned RV park that was hosting some kind of extended family gathering for the weekend. Let’s just say their gathering and our retreat were about 180 degrees of difference! I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend spent…
After a pretty slow February and March as far as traveling around goes, I’ve now picked up the pace, heading to a weekend retreat up in northern Virginia. Friday, I said goodbye to Birmingham, home of good food, an old friend and a new one, and photographic opportunities, and headed up the road a few hours to Huntsville. My Alabama explorations are almost done now. Huntsville has been on my radar since I started vagabonding, mainly because an old running buddy and his wife live there. I missed them last fall when I changed plans so we met up this…
It’s been a difficult few months for me, seeing so much pain and sorrow in civil rights exhibits and reading more of the same in histories, biographies, and in essays and books. I’ve immersed myself in hard truths about our country, our history, and, in the end, about myself and my white privilege and inherent racism. It’s work I needed to do and work I need to continue doing. As Fannie Lou Hamer stated, Nobody is free until everybody is free. I realized yesterday, though, that I need to take a break and do something different to balance things out….