You know the place? Where the road ends, or the highway comes to an end… turning into a pathway or smaller roadway? Different surroundings, more trees or maybe more open- but it’s different. The road ends and it’s different. I see it so many times, actually and emotionally, and I think about it so often…like 95 running into US 1. One minute in the midst of a busy city center and as you drop down a small hill, suddenly the bustle of the city changes into small neighborhoods. Trees overhang the highway completely. It’s shady, cooler, slower, more intriguing. The road divides the prosperous east neighborhoods from the apartments and businesses on to the west. I remember the transition even from when I was a young girl, riding from further up north in Florida down to the Florida Keys. I was always amazed that upon leaving a concrete jungle, you suddenly land surrounded by flowering trees, parrots sometimes flying by, lush landscapes… But it’s not just 95. I see it when I go for runs in places I visit. I start out running on the sidewalk around the neighborhood or hotel and then there it is… The end of the road… The place where the sidewalk ends. Do you remember the poem by Shel Silverstein? 

Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein

There is a place where the sidewalk ends

And before the street begins,

And there the grass grows soft and white,

And there the sun burns crimson bright,

And so on…Love it.

There so many of these places and they’re so unexpected! I remember going for a run in Orlando at a resort just outside Disney when suddenly in the middle of what seemed like such a busy city, the sidewalk just came to an end. Now, keep in mind I have celiac and admittedly I had eaten a bunch of twizzlers (I thought they were “safe”) the night before at the “not so scary Halloween party” at Disney… So, it turns out twizzlers DO continue gluten so I was horribly sick and in the middle of the run, right where the sidewalk ended I started throwing up. In between retching I looked up to see a curious Doe and her fawn in a wide open field slowly approaching me. I don’t know, perhaps retching sounds like the call of a deer… Really, I have no idea. It was surreal… And had I not been sick, would I have taken the time to notice this amazing, beautiful sight at the end of the road? Or would I have checked my pace and distance and turned back?

It’s true in our travels… daily or vacation, and it’s true in our lives. We each head down our road, or path, or superhighway …full throttle… Eyes and hearts on our “destination”, and not really “open” to the world around us, and then one day, maybe on purpose or by pure accident (luck) you go off road, off-line, off the “grid”… mentally, professionally, emotionally, or actually! And how do you react? Do you panic and make a quick U-turn to get back? Or do you check it out? Open your eyes? Explore a little? 

I have had the privilege to witness the beginning of life and experienced the pain of the end. Maybe that too is just the end of the road, opening into a field of possibilities…. I don’t know. But I do know that when you find where the road changes, you have a choice. Do you want to explore it? Check it out? Feel the change in the temperature, the excitement level? See the beauty that change can bring? You can always go back to the road you know, or choose a new one! Or is it not the time? Maybe you just want to get back on your road, keep going straight, in a hurry to reach the next destination.

Your road… Your ending and beginning.

❤️