the places I love

The world is wide and the wonders are many. Life is short and time is shorter. And yet, given the wide world and the length of life, what is it about the familiar places that call us home again and again? Would I be narrow if I told you that the coast and the mountains are the places that speak loudest to me, that engender in me a sense of peace & smallness in a vast universe, that call me with the camera, again and again? I don't think so. I believe that my life will not be long enough for me to see everything I want to see. And I also believe that people who exist daily within the confines of four walls, four miles or even four minutes of their homes are missing a great deal this planet has to offer. But I also know we are limited by things we cannot control, or choices that must control us. And there's nothing wrong with going back to the familiar again and again, if it pleases us. And so, as I prepare for a whirlwind tour of Western Europe, I must pay tribute to that which, when the plane has landed, the bags unpacked and the money spent, will still be there, pleasing and peaceful, and waiting. First, I give you the mountains. Or a brief glimpse of them as I ended my week in North Carolina in Crossnore, outside Grandfather Mountain. Spring was definitely in the air.