Today

God's Own Country Musings…

Kaye Barley, a beloved Southern writer, is well-known to readers of Jungle Red and Meanderings and Muses.

As are her husband Don and their cherished dog, Harley Barley.

Many of us have walked along with her in remembrance of her dear mother's recent sudden passing. And today photos of the simpler life of North Carolina draw us all together in the beauty of down home, simple life in a wonderful part of our beloved country.

The photos bring back my own memories of happy years as a child in that state, so far from the world we see nightly on TV with jagged words and horrid verbal slings and toupee touching!

You will enjoy Kaye's trip too…

Thelma in Manhattan

---

Today has been a good day.

I drove to Newland to Cranberry House and was struck once more with just how lovely the drive is and how many interesting spots there are between here and there.

I would have enjoyed the trip to and from on visits to my mom, and I doubt I would have ever tired of the drive.

But.

Since my mom is no longer there, I'm blessed to have made some friends who are there.

I will always think of Gigi, Kathy and Rhianon as “Hazel's Angels."

And because I didn't have a single place I needed to rush to, I stopped at almost every place I had been promising myself I would stop “one of these days." Today was finally that day, and it was nice.

And I am so happy I had my camera with me, which isn't really that unusual, but sometimes - sometimes I walk out of the house without it and regret it every minute I'm gone.

And I'm also happy there's meatloaf left over from last night's supper and I can fix myself a meatloaf sandwich.

Life is good.

But there's a lesson behind all this.

The lesson is this.

I've missed a lot of opportunities to take some time to stop whatever it was I was doing. I've missed some fabulous photo ops.

I'm lucky though regarding this trip from Boone to Newland and back.

It's close enough that I can get a “re-do" whenever the urge strikes.

Sometimes, though, we even pass up the chances for a “re-do."

I think it's important to remember that we really don't have to be doing something we think of as important or critical or necessary all the time.

Sometimes it's alright to just “be."

To just allow yourself time to stop at that little place on the side of the road and see if it's as interesting as you think it might be.

It's okay to pull off the side of the road and take a picture of the sky just 'cause.

And I'm going to try to remember to do these things more often.

I don't think we're put here on this earth to rush through life, or work through life.

I need to remember to sometimes allow myself to just be.

Here's a few of the things I took a little bit of time to enjoy today.

A few places I finally stopped at, and a few places I just wanted to photograph.

Life is good. I want to remember to live it.

Kaye Barley