| Gravel Roads I love gravel roads -narrow ones with lots of dust and bends. They are not always the best paths for travel as in the winter the twists in the road often fill with snow, making the roads unusable. But oh, in the spring, summer and fall a gravel road is a place to wander. Every day on such a road dances a new dance. A gravel road is a special place. A place to be without company. There is a quiet happiness to be found in periodic reflections. A time to think and to be grateful. I was a regular walker of gravel roads almost as soon as I had learned to walk. Sometimes I would walk at a slow and deliberate pace. At other times I would run in most haste. A gravel road was a place that was easy for me to get along with. A comfortable spot where my imagination had no boundaries. A place where I could laugh loudly over nothing. A location where I could be unseen by anything other than the hawk flying overhead and the deer hiding in the tall grass. True, the road could be hot and dusty in the summer, but that made me appreciate the gentle breezes it occasionally provided all the more. I would sample the raspberries that fruited for my pleasure. I would smell the delightful aromas offered by the wet soil following a rain and freshly mowed hay. My eyes were well fed by the beauty of the wildflowers that grew among the thin, young saplings bordering the road. The young trees had fled to the open spaces offered by the road ditch. Trees do not grow well in the shadow of their parents. They grow tall away from home. Often, a car would stop. I would decline the kind offer of a ride. "Why walk when you could ride?" I'd be asked. What I was doing was so much more than walking. I was enjoying life. I still walk gravel roads. I still hear nature's softest voice as the breeze blows through the wind-catching hedge of small trees and grasses. Why walk when I could ride? We all leave our signature upon the land. Mine will be footprints in the dusty crown of a gravel road. I walk instead of riding because walking a gravel road is one joy I do not want to disappear from my life. ~Al Batt |
View of Sandford NS, August '07
Alice came to a fork in the road.
"Which road do I take?" she asked.
"Where do you want to go?" responded the Cheshire cat.
"I don't know," Alice answered.
"Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter."
~Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
"Which road do I take?" she asked.
"Where do you want to go?" responded the Cheshire cat.
"I don't know," Alice answered.
"Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter."
~Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
MorningStar for people
To submit comments, requests or materials,
contact me at outreach@dawncoveabbey.org
contact me at outreach@dawncoveabbey.org
For empowerment workshops, seminars and lectures, see: http://www.dawncoveabbey.org/healing-circle
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MorningStar Inspiration from Dawn Cove Abbey
Article, haiku, humour and poem contributions are welcomed, and gratefully received
Layout & Design by DawnStar
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MorningStar Inspiration from Dawn Cove Abbey
Article, haiku, humour and poem contributions are welcomed, and gratefully received
Layout & Design by DawnStar
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Home is ... the wanderer; home from the road. ~(a la R..L. Stevenson)