Recently my friend, Judi, and I decided to take a back road returning to her home in Coarsgold, CA from my condo in Lake Tahoe, NV. We had been up to the condo several times recently and had traveled on the more obvious routes of CA 120, the Tioga Pass and CA 180, the Sonora Pass. Well, those were lovely routes and we certainly have some beautiful photographs to attest to the scenery. This time we decided to “take a back road” and it got me wondering about taking back roads in life’s travels.
As we cruised along CA 50 from So Lake Tahoe, we decided to find a less congested route home and Judi suggested we take CA 49, a nice 2-lane road through little towns I had not seen before. Just getting off the main route showed so many things I have not really looked at over the previous years.
Perhaps a bit of background history is required here. I’ve spent the last 44+ years living in Southern California and been part of its hustle and bustle lifestyle. As such I’ve taken the quickest, most expeditious routes to everywhere and to do everything. Now that I’m partially retired, well pretty much retired but in the process of re-inviting myself for the next chapters in my life, I’ve decided I want to slow things down and really stop to smell the roses. Notwithstanding the terrible clichés, I now have the time to really slow down my life and look at things from a different perspective… ergo the desire to travel the back roads.
Going through all the lovely small towns on Rt 49, I realized I’ve never lived anywhere but a big city for all my life. I’ve never know the sense of community a small town affords. I’ve never really known the sense of everyone knowing my business and I knowing everyone else’s. I’ve not met my doctor or dentist in the grocery line. I’ve not seen my children’s teachers in any other capacity other than in a classroom during conference times. I wonder, could I have really lived like that and enjoyed it? I don’t know but in some respects I would like to try.
While traveling that back road I got to wondering how much of life have I missed by driving by on the superhighways and just been a “looker” on life rather than a “liver” of life. Maybe now that I’ve got the time, I can really learn to enjoy the smaller or less obvious characteristics of my life.
Where will these back roads take me? Who knows. Can I really do it… slowing down I mean? Hopefully yes, and with an understanding that I really want to work on re-inventing how I look at life and just what that means.
I’m looking forward to the back roads and I plan to travel on more of them.
As we cruised along CA 50 from So Lake Tahoe, we decided to find a less congested route home and Judi suggested we take CA 49, a nice 2-lane road through little towns I had not seen before. Just getting off the main route showed so many things I have not really looked at over the previous years.
Perhaps a bit of background history is required here. I’ve spent the last 44+ years living in Southern California and been part of its hustle and bustle lifestyle. As such I’ve taken the quickest, most expeditious routes to everywhere and to do everything. Now that I’m partially retired, well pretty much retired but in the process of re-inviting myself for the next chapters in my life, I’ve decided I want to slow things down and really stop to smell the roses. Notwithstanding the terrible clichés, I now have the time to really slow down my life and look at things from a different perspective… ergo the desire to travel the back roads.
Going through all the lovely small towns on Rt 49, I realized I’ve never lived anywhere but a big city for all my life. I’ve never know the sense of community a small town affords. I’ve never really known the sense of everyone knowing my business and I knowing everyone else’s. I’ve not met my doctor or dentist in the grocery line. I’ve not seen my children’s teachers in any other capacity other than in a classroom during conference times. I wonder, could I have really lived like that and enjoyed it? I don’t know but in some respects I would like to try.
While traveling that back road I got to wondering how much of life have I missed by driving by on the superhighways and just been a “looker” on life rather than a “liver” of life. Maybe now that I’ve got the time, I can really learn to enjoy the smaller or less obvious characteristics of my life.
Where will these back roads take me? Who knows. Can I really do it… slowing down I mean? Hopefully yes, and with an understanding that I really want to work on re-inventing how I look at life and just what that means.
I’m looking forward to the back roads and I plan to travel on more of them.
meditate. that will slow you down and certainly give you space for reinventing and a new look at a lot of things. just my .02.
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