Roadside Revelations

 I drive almost two hours every day, back and forth to work. Some people get a bug-eyed expression on their face when they learn this, and then it melts into a sympathetic look. That isn't really necessary, because although the drive sometimes sucks, I am lucky to have an exceptional job.

I've also found that my morning commute can sometimes border on a spiritual experience. That's not because of the chick-lit I am usually listening to on Overdrive, but because of the natural beauty of this stretch of highway I must traverse.

Sometimes the way is clear until I reach a low place between the mountains, and then I see that fog is nestled into the valley like a white cat stretched out in a cozy crevice. Before the farmer plows his cover crop at milepost 160, the fields on one side stretch out in an impossibly vivid shade of green that makes my eyes thirsty. I want to pull over and drink in the rolls of those gentle hills punctuated by navy blue and silver silos.

Recently, as it is now June, the chicory has begun to bloom. When the chicory blooms, it feels as if summer has truly arrived.

Growing up, we always called these roadside flowers "cornflowers," but I learned later in life that we were wrong. Cornflowers, from which that lovely shade of blue was derived, are a different type of plant. Chicory is basically an edible weed, and it grows leggy and scraggly on the roadside before bursting into velvety bluish-purple flowers at this time of year. They look like little daisies, but they are this color that seems impossible in nature -- until it is in front of me.

There's one place along my northbound morning commute where both sides of the interstate are lousy with chicory. The plants stand like sentries crowded together to usher cars around the curve. And when I reach a spot just before passing these plants, they catch the rays of the morning sun in a way that makes the blossoms glow. They are like a cluster of cornflower-blue holiday lights strung among the greenery.

POW. They glow. I stare as long as I safely can, and then I smile. Then they are gone until tomorrow. And soon, they will be gone until next year.

40 Lessons in 40 Years

Hello, and welcome to my blog. If you have landed on this page, you are either a friend or family member of mine, or you stumbled across it while looking for something more interesting and useful. Or maybe it's actually not as hard to find as I thought it would be, which is a somewhat frightening thought that I will choose to ignore for now.

I used to write words that more than 100,000 people per day would read. Not just news stories, but later, columns with personal details. It was intimidating to invite strangers into my life, but it was attached to a paycheck so I did it. Since then, I have continued to write, but the content is more promotional. Maybe it's the freedom from the stress of the newspaper industry, but the urge to write purely for my own enjoyment has grown within me again. So I plunge into this personal blog thing, but I do not promise quality. Ultimately, I am doing this for myself, because I want to upgrade from filling notebooks that stack up in boxes in my basement.

For my first blog entry, I'll share something I wrote on the recent occasion of my 40th birthday. For a few months prior to that birthday, I had been thinking a lot about what I have learned in my life so far, and how I wish I’d learned it all much earlier. Maybe it is valuable to pass along some advice, just in case something will resonate and make a difference in another person’s life. Not everyone will agree with this advice, and that’s cool. I have not mastered all of this myself, but I try every day. So here goes:

1. Being single is 100 percent better than being unhappy in a relationship.

2. Always RSVP. If you forget or don’t think it’s important, just admit that you are an ass.

3. Find an organizational system that works for you. It might be an online calendar, a day planner, Post-It notes on the bathroom mirror, or writing on your hand. Whatever it is, employ it. And don’t procrastinate. Grit your teeth and get it done, because procrastination breeds anxiety.

4. Many people who were beautiful and popular in high school will be fat and unsuccessful adults, and vice versa. We’ve all heard this, but it’s true.

5. Drink lots of water or you’ll have chicken skin (Aunt Cindy told me this when I was a kid. I didn’t listen. Guess who has chicken skin?)

6. Clean house on Thursday evening so you don’t have to do it over the weekend (h/t Kenn Sanders, RIP my friend)

7. Exercise several times per week, even if it’s just a leisurely stroll. Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t think you did enough that day; it will not engender enthusiasm about exercise. Do this not because of what you see in the mirror, but because of how you want to feel physically AND mentally.

11. Speaking of the mirror, what you see there is never exactly what everyone else sees, for better or for worse.

12. F*** pantyhose.