Cusp

Here I am on the cusp of a great adventure, an experiment to spread my wings and leave this place behind.   I’m unsure if I will ever return to this place other than to visit, I wonder what changes will occur in my absence.  I do know that this place continues to shock me with the things that I see and “discover.”  But soon this will be a distant place an abstract point on a map… a place of memories.

This is one of those shocking things; this Hindu Temple is located in Flowood, MS right off Old Fannin Road. It is classically Indian and something unique to my normally cookie-cutter area.   A funny note: the temple is located right next to the Shady Pines RV Park… I thought this was hilarious.

Yellow

Spring is fully on its way out in Mississippi, the small spring and endless summer with (usually) mild winters, is what we are used to. After our unusually frigid winter, we are embracing the warmer weather, but with swimming pools set to open by the end of the month, the heat will soon be unbearable. However in the meantime the flowers are in bloom, bathing fields in colour of many shades. This is a scene I have never seen in my life, that is until today… a field of nothing but yellow flowers as far as the eye could see. It was breathtaking (and I don’t mean just because of the pollen.) The flowers are these small waxy yellow wildflowers that are common through the area, though I have never seen them in such a concentration.

The Tide

I had the world at my fingers, and it slipped away… I watched it shatter at my feet broken and distorted. I was lost, not sure what to do, everything lay at my feet… all that I worked for, all that was to be, lost in one moment.

Then, something happened. I am not sure when, but I was handed another reality… one that I have trouble comprehending, one where everything is the opposite than it once was. Before I did not have control, I had no say in everything that once transpired… that has changed… now I am rebuilding something, I see a light. Just one problem….

Is it what I really want?

I think so.

Yes, I do.

(This was a rainbow that appeared over Flowood, Mississippi on 12-July-2009 at the Dogwood shopping center. It was unique in that it was not raining that day, just a few clouds, and yet the rainbow was the brightest I have seen in a long while.)

Things Lost... Returned!

Things done as a child can linger as memories for the rest of your life, and sometimes doing those things can make feelings long dead come back. I’ve managed to bring many of these feelings back to life when I rediscovered things from my youth… things like fishing. I’ve even had a chance to share these memories and feelings with friends and loved ones, and introduced some of these to a new generation creating new memories.

This is life, not that washed down version we get on a daily basis when we do what we always do… this is really living: experience, love, memories.

About the photo: Crystal Lake in Flowood, Mississippi. Created when the Pearl River was straightened during the construction of the Ross Barnett Reservoir. This former river channel is no longer connected to the Pearl River and is maintained by several former river tributaries.

New Era

I stand at the end of an era, one that for once I had control over… and I prepare to embark on yet another adventure one that requires a little more preparation, that I must have a minor adventure first. I am ready; I am so very ready for what is to come… words can not express adequately how excited I am to embark on the adventure that is my life and to run full speed into the uncertain horizon.

About the photo: I used to work at this very store, Linens ‘N Things at Dogwood Festival Market in Flowood, Mississippi. I was shocked to discover that the company had filed for bankruptcy and all the stores were closing. The people I worked with at this location were among the best people I had ever had the privilege of ever knowing, and I hope they all fair well in this new era in their lives.

Angels in Waiting

I am blessed to have so many angels in my life.

This particular angel is in Drake Cemetery in Flowood, Mississippi. It is where several members of my family are interred, including John Grant Wixson, my maternal grandfather, and Hattie Coker-Bailey my Maternal Great-Grandmother.