When I look back at the photographs, the last eight months was extremely full of new sights and landscapes, though while I lived it, it didn’t feel very different. I spent weeks living a different lifestyle, traveling to Tuscon, Arizona, and to several different small towns and landmarks nearby, before the year turned toward the end. A snowdrift in Denver, during the cold spell, caused me to stay for a few nights in a very small former coal mining town, Leadville, with extremely beautiful snow capped mountains in the distance, in high altitudes, and an appreciation for various kinds of lifestyles, while I was there.
I returned to Indiana yet again in the spring, where the leaves were changing, the blooms were opening up and sprouting into green hues everywhere, and the placid lake in the mornings as the sun drifted over it changed morning and evening, reminding me once again why I liked being in Indiana so much, anyway.
The months passed slowly, and another trip out west happened. Weeks slowly became the past, as it kept moving on, and suddenly the blooms were gone and full leaves had been grown. I wandered around the New River Gorge, taking in the sights and climbing, and visited the Red River Gorge, on the way back.
Another trip took me to Asheville, where finally, I visited the Biltmore Estate and drove along part of the Blue Ridge Parkway, admiring the views.
In Yellowwood, someone who was traveling across the country said, “you might look to the future and aspire to it, but one day, you’ll look back and realize that the last ten years is what you did.” We often look to the future and admire our plans without fully realizing that where we are and what we’re doing is what we knit into our shroud, as the saying goes.
