Beauty close to home

I’m not sure why it’s taken me so long to start exploring the different trails in my city, but it has. After discovering the arboretum and booking a staff retreat hike at Starkey’s Hill, I ventured out for a Sunday trek on the Radius Trail. This path has a few different side trails which take you along the river and along some escarpment, but mostly this long path takes you through pine woods, which is refreshing change. I haven’t smelled pine needles in a long time. It smelled good, like winter.

Sometimes it’s hard to break out of routine. I’m a person who clings a lot to routine and I get a little unnerved when my routines are disrupted. This conflicts with my love for travel, adventure and spontaneity. You can see how these personality traits sometimes compete.  For the past year and a half or so I’ve been making more of an effort to break out of what I know and just explore, because experimenting is part of living a full life and it’s definitely necessary when you’re trying to meet new people and feel like you’re a part of a community. A recurring theme of this blog is to look a little deeper and go off the beaten path, because you’ll probably be surprised at how much goodness you find in your own backyard.

Here’s what I found in my back yard (or almost backyard – a 4 minute drive from my house.)

What exploring have you done lately?