June in Photos and Beautiful Words

I picked a bouquet of Sweet Williams for my Grandma.  

"Flowers are the sweetest thing God ever made and forgot to put a soul into." - Henry Ward Beecher

In South Carolina, my friend took me around to see the old mill towns and then these old towers.

"Souls tend to go back to who feels like home." - N. R. Hart

In North Carolina at the Carl Sandburg place, it was absolutely wonderful. There is something about being up towards the hills/mountains, regardless of the state.

"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all." - Helen Keller

This is what my world looks like from air. I actually live on the other side of the valley, but this was as we flew in.

"Instruct us in the civil art of making from the muddled heart a desert and a city where the thoughts that have to labor there may find locality and peace, and pent-up feelings their release." -Anden

Home. It was strangely rainy and in the 70s when I got home from traveling. There is something perfect about the high-elevation desert softened with rain.

"She loves moonlight and rainstorms and so many other things that have soul." - JmStorm

Greenville, SC. The rather lovely park in downtown.

"Be so full that even if they take & take & take & take, you can still be overflowing." - Alison Malee

This is another wildflower. It is yellow when it is blooming, but I always love when it goes to seed. Like dandelions, but so much bigger.

"She looked up at the sky and whispered, 'Take anything away from me, take all if you want to; but please -- please, let me keep this one thing'." - Lang Leave

They're called Goats' Beards

"What cannot be said will be wept." - Sappho

Wild mustard and old apple bins. The wild mustard grows thick up where my grandpa's pear orchard used to be.

"Home murmurs, 'Where have you been?' And I cannot help but say, 'Away; looking for you'." - Noor Unnahar

South Carolina near Archibald Rutledge's plantation.

 If the path be beautiful, let us not ask where it leads." - Anatole France

North Carolina. We got caught in a rain storm and were soaked in minutes (we had been eating our lunch outside). One of  my favorite parts of the trip - the unexpected is my favorite.

"The Jesus they saw loves people. Without regard, He loves them. And when nightmares sweep people's lives away, leaving them helpless on the ground, He lies down next to them." - Brant Hansen

Do you enjoy quotes? Which of these do you like the best? Do you have a favorite quote?  Sometimes I find the perfect words - the words that make my heart sing - are the ones that tie together in a short sentence. Sometimes those ache so much more than full stories.

What is Home? (A Contemplation of the Word)

What is home? Is it a place? Or the people?

My home is people. It's my mom almost always around when I need to talk (even though sometimes she has to tell me to be quiet for awhile because my brain is machine gunning too many thoughts at her). It's my sister there to told the cute/obnoxious/funny thing one of the animals have done. My dad showing me he loves me in the strangest and best ways (like the time he sharpened all my new colored pencils). It's in South Carolina where my best friend lives. Wherever we go and adventure. And talk and just be. It's with her family in their small home. It's staying up late with her mom as she tries to make groundhog wedding cake toppers. It's in Virginia at my big brother's house for Christmas where he's decorated everything for our arrival. It's with my other big brother in another part of Virginia where I walked him down to the parking lot and watched him leave and realized that it's a lot harder to leave someone than to be left because I had gotten used to one but not the other.

But there is also significance in the place. Arriving at those other places is exciting but not the same excitement as when I come home. Home to the high-elevation desert. To the sagebrush, antelope brush, rabbit bush, cheat grass, and Spring wildflowers. To the Winter snow. To Summer's fresh fruit and the Autumn's apples. To the Winter's snow. To the house I've lived  in for 20-something years. Sometimes I cling to the place because I know the people will not last forever. Both change through life, and sometimes I wonder why or how it is even possible.

My home is still with my parents. Other people's home is with siblings or grandparents. Eventually it changes to where their husband or wife is. Where their children are. Perhaps others feel their home is where their calling/career/job is (I suppose this is true for some people, but it would never satisfy me, or maybe it would have to, if it is God's will).

What about the people who are single all their lives?  I do not exist solely to marry. I have a calling, and whether marriage works into that calling or not doesn't matter in the grand scheme, but the idea of a single life leaves me envisioning a lonely life because parents grow old and die. Siblings move on with their families. Places disappear. Things change, and a home is where you share your mundane life with others. To me, there is something that quiets my yearnings in the idea of sharing my life.

If my home is where my people are, how far would I go to be by my people? Two of my favorite people live on the other side of the country, but who is worthy of following? Who would I move for? They will most likely make families of their own, and that will change the dynamic of the friendship. They will find their own homes, where they belong. So where is it that I belong?

If you choose singleness, does that mean you choose not to be anyone's one? You are your own then, and maybe times of loneliness are inevitable even in a conscious choice.

Home is where a family shares life, or can a home exist without a family? How does one create a makeshift family when everyone else has a priority in their traditional one?

I guess all things are temporary. People, places, and home. But the yearning for a home doesn't ever go away because home is where you belong, where you feel at rest, where you are safe, and maybe an aching problem like this doesn't go away because we are still on the sunset side of Heaven.

What makes your home?

Traveling

(Just figures that the day I put up a proper 'blog schedule' sidebar on my blog, I wouldn't follow it.)

Hello, blog world. For those of you who didn't notice, I've been adventuring the past two weeks and mostly absent from the blogging world. I've never taken a vacation by myself which means I've never flown by myself or been away from home that long, again, by myself (because most times I'm a hermit). 

I flew to South Carolina for 9 days to visit a friend/penpal who I've written to for the last ten years. I stayed with her family, and we drove all over the place, in constant motion from the moment I arrived to when I left. It was amazing and exhausting and one of those best of life times.

The actual traveling wasn't bad at all. Airports aren't complicated. Just follow the signs. I wrote in the other post how I was dreading the all- night flight. As I expected, I didn't sleep at all,  but I guess I can stay up all night like a pro (never did it before then). I took a 45 minute nap in the afternoon, but otherwise, lack of sleep didn't affect me much. Maybe on the last day or two, all of my optimism was getting low, but the whole thing went exceptionally well (minus the part where I almost ended up getting car sick on the way to the airport at 4:30 in the morning. Gah, I hate morning flights...and the feeling green on trips part).

Random house on the side of the highway. I approached with great caution since I had been told of the glorious bugs and snakes and spiders SC has.

My friend took me to Charleston where we walked downtown and admired doors and fences and railings and old churches. We camped near the coast in a state park with alligators (saw a 6ft one. Yup, definitely don't have those in Washington). I was eaten by mosquitoes which kinda figured. She freaked me out after finding one of those tiny ticks crawling on her (that's the only time I freaked, and that's saying something since she told me wonderful stories all the time she was here last year. Actually, I didn't totally freak. I surrendered to my fate).  I saw the sunrise on the ocean for the first time. Drank sweet tea (😐). Visited old Mill towns. Went kayaking for the first time (and didn't drown. I don't much like water so that's a pretty big feat. Now I'm thinking about buying a kayak. I just gotta find myself a lake...Okay, I actually do know where a lake is. It's just the kayak buying I have to do). Saw fireflies! (Okay, so, the proper Southern way is to call them 'Lightning bugs', but I like fireflies better. Though, they do look more like a bug).

Doors. They be incredible.

I also went to a Catholic Mass for the first time. That was different. Drove around in an old jeep with the doors off. Also different. We drove a bit on the Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway. The weather was absolutely perfect which meant I didn't die at all. In the 70s-80s with limited humidity. We did get caught in the rain once (which might be the highlight of the trip), and it definitely doesn't rain like that over here. We visited Carl Sandburgh's home and saw adorable baby goats. Wandered downtown Asheville and Greenville (Asheville wins for best iced chai latte, but Greenville's park won my heart) and Spartanburg. Visited the plantation which belonged to SC's poet laureate, Archibald Rutledge. And my friend even did Henna on the back of my hands. Lots of firsts.

Every time I go on a trip, I always come home with loads of new thoughts and questions and wonderings, but I'll leave those for another post.



My favorite part of traveling is the people. It doesn't matter where I go or the places I see if I don't have someone to share the memories with. I'm extremely blessed to have a friend that makes everything a blast, even waking up at 5:00 am (technically I was still on West Coast time then; so more like 2:00 am) which is saying a lot since I don't like mornings.

What are your plans for the Summer? Any grand adventures? Have any of you gone to South Carolina? If so, what were your favorite parts? Is Henna a thing all over the place? Or have I just been living under a rock?

A Link to An Article I Wrote

Still on vacation, but I wanted to share this post I wrote for a magazine's online blog. Hope you guys go check it out and tell me what you think!