Changes in Attitudes

Today after my day job wrapped up, I spent some time chasing a sunset. A little bit of map recon would have gone a long way because I ended up in a less than optimal viewing location. On top of the initial geographical mistake, I got to the spot just in time to watch Sol slip below the horizon, and I was left with the dregs as the light faded into night. Don't get me wrong, it was much better than any number of evening pastimes (like watching the "news"), but there's some improvement to be achieved.

That said, Google Photos salvaged a photo or two automatically, so the walk wasn't a total loss in terms of scenery.

Dregs of the Sunset as Interpreted by Google - Fairhope, AL

After the walk, I found myself in a Target looking for bottled iced tea. That's a whole story in and of itself, but suffice it to say that I'm battling my way through breaking a Diet Coke habit and I needed some non-artificially sweetened caffeine.

As I walked through the store, my thoughts brought me back to one of the great Jimmy Buffet songs, "Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes."  While Jimmy sings about a geographic changes driving a shift in outlook. Walking is doing something like that to my outlook. It's getting more and more difficult to stomach the complexity that I find inundates almost every moment of my conscious existence. Material wealth, choices, distractions, entertainment, and agendas froth around my senses begging for attention and often getting far to much of it.

All this after I've curtailed many of the purchases I used to make and essentially have ejected television from the list of activities I find fulfilling.

The road is calling. I sense a building of circumstances surrounding what amounts to the crazy idea that a pedestrian trek of some distance will allow me to reset and reconnect with something whole and spiritual that even now I can't really define. Today, the draw was greater than it's felt in the past, and every day that passes without moving out seems to make the pull a little stronger...the whispers of my thoughts and feelings a little louder...my resolve to step out and complete this fantastical journey a little more steely.

Rory Conlan has said in the past that "sometimes it's good to step out of line just to see if the line is leading you anywhere you'd like to be going." Maybe it's time to take a step to the right and forge off in a different direction.

We'll see what the morning brings. It'll be different, and I'm looking forward to that possibility.