<\/p>\n
A friend, Merry, and I decided to take a long walk yesterday. The wind was brisk and you could tell it was going to be the coolest evening we’ve had in a long time. Her girls and a friend went on their bikes and scooter with us. <\/span><\/p>\n We’ve walked around her neighborhood hundreds of times before. It was after <\/span>5 pm<\/span> when we started and traffic was a little heavier than usual on the main roads. <\/span><\/p>\n “Let’s go this way.” the girls said. <\/span><\/p>\n “Ok, there will be less traffic.” Merry replied.<\/span><\/p>\n We walked into part of the subdivision that was being developed. At the end of one of the houseless cul-de-sacs we stopped and viewed the lake at the bottom of the cliff we were standing on. <\/span><\/p>\n “Wow, that’s beautiful.” we exclaimed. From all indications it was going to be a stunning sunset. <\/span><\/p>\n “Let’s go down the dirt road.” One of the girls said. “Yeah, yeah,” we heard as the others jumped up and down. They were adventurers; too, I thought as we all agreed to take that path. <\/span><\/p>\n So, the five of us ventured over the mound of uneven road and down the bluff to the lake. We could hear the <\/span>Broad River<\/span> nearby. The bushes and trees were thick for most of the journey down. You could see the glistening lake to the left and a heavy cover of trees to the right between us and the river. <\/span><\/p>\n We never made it to the river. <\/span><\/p>\n The site of the lake and the walk down that road through the woods and bushes consumed our time. <\/span><\/p>\n The sun was setting and we needed to turn around and head back, but not before Merry and I agreed that this was our bit of country life.<\/span><\/p>\n On the way back, right at the bottom of the cliff, my cellphone rang. It was my publisher friend, Charles, calling to see if I had received my first copy of the book I had just written – Sardines, Cheese and Soda Crackers: Reflections From a Country Girl.<\/em><\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n “In case I sound out of breath, you need to know I’m climbing up a mountain, Charles.” I said as we talked. <\/span><\/p>\n He would have laughed if he’d seen what I called a mountain. While it was a very steep incline to the top of the cliff, it was really just a hill…but a beautiful one at that. <\/span><\/p>\n Now, I have a new “country road” to travel on – at least until they start building houses on the bluff. <\/span><\/p>\n When I get a chance, I’ll take my camera and get a picture of it for you before it disappears. Country roads have a tendency of disappearing in this world today. <\/span><\/p>\n You have to take your country paths while you can in the city, and this one will be well etched in my memory for a very long time. Yes, I will definitely walk this way again. <\/span><\/p>\n My wish for you today<\/span><\/strong> is that you have a chance to walk a country path as often in your life as possible. It’s so different from walking on a well paved street. Things are most often fresher, cleaner and calmer when you’re on a country road. You may even be lucky enough to find one nearby. <\/span><\/p>\n ~Joellen <\/span><\/p>\n <\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n <\/font> <\/font><\/font> <\/font><\/font><\/font> <\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A friend, Merry, and I decided to take a long walk yesterday. The wind was brisk and you could tell it was going to be the coolest evening we’ve had in a long time. Her girls and a friend went on their bikes and scooter with us. We’ve walked around her neighborhood hundreds of times […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,16,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-friendship","category-life-events","category-living-life-to-the-fullest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}