"ODE (and owed) TO BACKROADS" continuted...

In those all too frequent frantic periods, which plague me as much as anyone else, it's wonderful to be able to switch on a little mind-video and you're back on that track (maybe a track near home, one you'd never taken before) and voila! presto! — there's that peace again, the ease and succor of deep; previously unseen beauty, the gentle rhythms of secret places, a vision of a vibrant- winged butterfly basking on a rock by a chittering stream, a burst of scarlet berries in a shaft of sunlight against the deep fall colors of a silent wood... And then comes that soft, grateful sigh of your own soul saying — thank you, please use me more, touch me more, move me — I'm here for you and that's why you're here — for me. Caress me, nurture me and fill me with beauty and bounty and I'll give you a hundred times more than you expected to get out of life and life's journeys...

And the strange wonder of it all is that — it works. Those simple backroading mood-vignettes, that take so little time to collect out of all your days, will feed and refresh your soul, your spirit, your heart, your mind, like the finest of wines, the most succulent of dishes, the most amorous of partners you've ever enjoyed. They arc your moments. You didn't have to buy them, or order them take- out, or get them vicariously through a movie — they are yours because you created them and made them yours. They come to you from within because you sacrificed a little time and opened new windows and in your mind and new perceptions; they come in gratitude from the deepest levels of your own being — and they stay with you...

And all because you took a backroad or two, saw the early sun golden-yoked over a misty, silent valley, watched flowers glow in a salmon-light sunset, stopped to speak with someone you've never met before, exchanged tales over a couple of beers in a backwoods tavern with a bunch of strangers and, who knows, maybe even dragged out your own sketchpad or camera and captured the essence of something beautiful and lasting along these quiet byways.

It all takes so little. You don't even have to go far from home. And you certainly don't need exotic vacations or adventure odysseys or exorbitant spas or extravagant resorts to help you relax, mellow-out, and rediscover your-selves. They're already there. You carry your own resort, vacation, adventures, monastic retreat, spa, and your own crash-course in chilling-out within you. It just needs the occasional sojourn off the superfast highways of life, an hour or two of randoming, of pursuing and playing with some of your less familiar selves ,of releasing a little of John Donne's '' wild roguery" that lives patiently awaiting within — of taking, whenever you can, those roads less traveled..

Believe me — your selves will thank you and reward you in ways you never dreamed of, again and again and again...

May you enjoy all your journeys...