So, while the girls were away, I did take some time to check out some of the amazing trails and parks that Georgia has to offer.
Red Top Mountain was one of the locations that I have been anxiously wanting to explore. It's relatively close, only about 40 minutes away, which is one example of the many wonderful things about the Georgia landscape- you don't have to go far to feel like you have left it all behind.
It was a cool and somewhat drizzly day, but I didn't mind- it meant that I had the trail almost totally to myself. Homestead trail is a 5.5 mile trek to along one of the ridge lines of the mountain, surrounded by tall pines, but also takes you out to Lake Allatoona for a majority of the center loop.
The time was peaceful, serene. While I had been alone for the majority of the week, it really provided solitude and that ever elusive opportunity to just think.
I was rounding a corner of the trail about a third of the way in, and in the center of tall bare trees there was a smaller one that was dwarfed by it's companions. But that's not what made it stand out to me... it was that it seemed to be stubbornly hanging on to what was left of its foliage from the year before.
I hopped off the trail for a closer look, and sure enough, the leaves were all dead and brown, but this small tree was bound and determined to not let them go.
This really spoke to me.
What are the things that I am holding on to that I really need to let go? That are dead and gone on the vine, but yet I hold on to them... why? To show that I have something- even if it's gone? To make me appear "whole" at least from the outside- not bare and exposed to the elements? Or is it in the hopes that one day they will return back to the vibrant leafy green foliage that it once was?
Letting go... possibly one of the hardest things to do. Even when nature tells you it's time, that the progression of the seasons- the ebb and flow of life- happens whether we want it to or not. And just like the tree, it stands out to everyone else that it's holding on to something that it should have let go a long time ago....
It's time to ask- what am I holding on to, and what should I be letting go? And if I do, instead of taking my energy to cling to every last dead leaf, maybe instead I could concentrate on growing... becoming stronger.
So, to let go is to grow. Perhaps. Either way there is no force of nature that can make it happen for you.... it is a life lesson that you have to learn on your own.
Red Top Mountain was one of the locations that I have been anxiously wanting to explore. It's relatively close, only about 40 minutes away, which is one example of the many wonderful things about the Georgia landscape- you don't have to go far to feel like you have left it all behind.
It was a cool and somewhat drizzly day, but I didn't mind- it meant that I had the trail almost totally to myself. Homestead trail is a 5.5 mile trek to along one of the ridge lines of the mountain, surrounded by tall pines, but also takes you out to Lake Allatoona for a majority of the center loop.
The time was peaceful, serene. While I had been alone for the majority of the week, it really provided solitude and that ever elusive opportunity to just think.
I was rounding a corner of the trail about a third of the way in, and in the center of tall bare trees there was a smaller one that was dwarfed by it's companions. But that's not what made it stand out to me... it was that it seemed to be stubbornly hanging on to what was left of its foliage from the year before.
I hopped off the trail for a closer look, and sure enough, the leaves were all dead and brown, but this small tree was bound and determined to not let them go.
This really spoke to me.
What are the things that I am holding on to that I really need to let go? That are dead and gone on the vine, but yet I hold on to them... why? To show that I have something- even if it's gone? To make me appear "whole" at least from the outside- not bare and exposed to the elements? Or is it in the hopes that one day they will return back to the vibrant leafy green foliage that it once was?
Letting go... possibly one of the hardest things to do. Even when nature tells you it's time, that the progression of the seasons- the ebb and flow of life- happens whether we want it to or not. And just like the tree, it stands out to everyone else that it's holding on to something that it should have let go a long time ago....
It's time to ask- what am I holding on to, and what should I be letting go? And if I do, instead of taking my energy to cling to every last dead leaf, maybe instead I could concentrate on growing... becoming stronger.
So, to let go is to grow. Perhaps. Either way there is no force of nature that can make it happen for you.... it is a life lesson that you have to learn on your own.
Time to let go
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