Regrets-those I have and those I have met.

Regret.                                  
People say a lot of dumb things about their regrets.
"I don't regret any of the things I have done, they have made me who I am today."
Really.
Because you are a MUCH better version of yourself with your ex-girlfriend's name tattooed I'm your back.
Whatever you say.
"All the mistakes I've made of taught me what not to do."
There is a point in time where this is no longer valid. If a 2 year-old sticks their finger in an electrical socket, they learn their lesson. If a 12 year-old does it, we wonder what is wrong with them. After awhile we are expected to understand the consequences of an action before we do it-not "learn our lesson" after the fact.
I'll admit it, I've kissed a lot of frogs and taken many a dangerous path. Some of them did lead me a valuable lesson that will help me in the future. Some if them though, were just mistakes that I wish I has never made, because of how they slowed me down, darkened my eyes and hurt the ones I love.
Think, before you act...and regret, because without it you would be condemned to always repeat your mistakes.

How sweet it is!

Home!
   Small word, big meaning. Sleeping in your own bed. Familiar voices in the morning, not needing your GPS to get to the store.
   It's the little things.
   Cliche, but true.
   Today, I was back with my family and in church, when I spotted the Dunkin Donuts cup. Now, I am a Starbucks woman myself, but at that moment I thought-"hey, coffee's coffee!" and took a sip.

 That might seem odd to you, that I would just grab a cup, not knowing whose it was, and drink it. Well, suffice it to say, my family doesn't have those boundaries. Besides, what are a few germs between sisters? (I was assuming one of my sisters had snuck it in). Apparently they had....a week or two ago.

Nooooo!

   Ah! How sweet it is......not.

Fort Sumter, SC

   The air in Charleston is heavy with the dreams of past generations, the streets still echoing with the sounds of a history slowly fading from its memory. 

   Near the battery, I can feel the heartache of hundreds of young lovers as they watched their men,  in shining buttons and steely grey prepare for war.

   Girls, barely old enough to know why, kissed boys with clean faces and fire in their eyes, not knowing they would come home with bitter tears on weathered cheeks-if they came home at all.

   The trumpets, the parades, the boasting! Rich and poor brought together by a common brotherhood, exchanged drinks and tall tales of southern strength and pride. 

   Fort Sumter, the place that changed the face of America-the painful choice of General Anderson, his inability to staunch the bloodlust that had begun to sweep both the north and the south. Proud men, full of honor, given to protect their homeland-separated by their definition, forced to take up arms against each other. 

   Streets that once rang with shouts and cheers lay silent in siege. A proud city, like its people, fell defeated. The glory of war was traded for the brutality of brothers bitterly opposed. The marching bands and pre-war balls gave way to dirges and empty seats. Boastful lips fell silent, as men struggled to adjust to life as cripples, missing so much more than an arm, a leg, an eye. The way of life that they had left would never return again, except in the imagination of those walking the streets today.

City girl, Country life

   Worms. Not just any worms, big fat nightcrawlers. So big you have to pinch them in half, getting their insides spurted on you before sliding them on the hook.
  Yup, I'm not in New Port Richey anymore. Still, standing yards away from a corn field watching the sun spill over the pond, line in hand, makes me feel a certain homey warmth.
   I am far from home, in south middle Tennessee-again, spending time with Kadee, my best friend. In one afternoon and two evenings we caught upwards of 45 little pan fish-mostly blue gill. However, there were two bass that we cleaned and cooked up!
  

  I might have a slight obsession with waterfalls. Once, I got lost in the backwoods of Alabama looking for one. This time, I didn't get lost! I even found a new friend-Josh Montgomery, a local writer and poet looking for inspiration in the falls.



Jacks Bar-B-Que

  Of course, the food. We stopped into Jack's Barbeque for some of the best ribs I've ever had-and I've had some ribs!


   It's crazy how facebook connects people. Here I am, in Tennessee, far from home and I meet up with some friends I haven't seen in ages! Downtown Nashville lit me up with bright lights, country music and a carriage ride (thanks to the Thomas family!). I even took a short line dance lesson at the Wild Horse Saloon.

With the Thomas sisters.