It’s always good to get away, whether one is getting away from the routine, the grind, or even the comfort. Doesn’t really matter. Change is good, or at least it can be if you let it. I had a week away from everything, and then another week of slow integration back into the life I temporarily left. Seems like whenever I do get out of here for awhile it becomes increasingly difficult to pick back up where I left off. I think that’s OK. It indicates to me, and actually reminds me, that life truly is transitory. That leaving things, leaving places, and even leaving people is a necessary part of life. Being stuck, whether being stuck in a rut, or stuck on the fast track, usually proves to be an uninspiring alternative. We get stuck in a lot of ways, and the thing about it is that when we are we usually don’t even know it. It often takes someone else to point it out, or some change of environment that would more easily enable a deeper self-reflection. We get stuck emotionally, socially, creatively, intellectually, spiritually, politically, and so on. Some people don’t mind that. It’s a comfortable place for them. They do better there. That’s OK also. Those who prefer a greater internal challenge, however, tend to whither on that vine and die. Or dry up and blow away across an increasingly barren desert, as would some forlorn tumbleweed, like dust in the proverbial wind.
I spent some time in the high desert with family, long conversations around the campfire, under a welcoming sky, stars blanketing the universe like the comforter thrown across my own bed. Milky Way dazzling the imagination, moon finding its predetermined path, and following it across a vast horizon, singing its own kind of traveling song. My cowboy brother-in-law telling stories to make us laugh, sometimes to the point of tears. Playing in the river with the kids, building dams for pools to swim, catching fish in a bucket, dogs splashing through the water like sea lions with legs, adding to the wonderful, but tranquil, pandemonium of life unrestrained.
A nice hike in the back-country, and a trail ride on horseback in our spare time. Cookouts in the evening, morning coffee by the fire.
Doesn’t get much better than that. Not in this lifetime.
Maybe not in the next.
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While I was away I gave very little thought to my novel, my blogs, or even my songs. However, I did write a few poems, which I’ve posted for you on the 'Musings' page here on ‘The Old Coyote’ website. Check em out.
I’m back to writing again, having found some renewal. I’ll try to keep the thoughts fluid, flowing freely, like the river from which they emerge.
