I was on a long drive from Memphis to Chicago today. The stretch of Interstate 57 North through Illinois is a particularly long stretch of road.  Normally, I have an angelic like patience, but for some reason this bit of road was feeling brutally long. I was feeling stir crazy and was looking for any form of distraction, when I passed a field to my right, but it wasn’t just any field, the contrast was startlingly beautiful.  It was full of dead trees, in the midst of green growing crops. My interest was piqued.

The internal struggle passed through me.

“Should I stop?”

“I have places to be, a deadline to meet.” “I shouldn’t stop.”

“This the only stop I’ll let you have.” “You can get gas too.” “The detour will only take 15 minutes according to my google maps.”

I went back and forth with myself, until I started approaching the next exit. The desire in me to pull over won, and I found myself quickly turning off at the next exit. I knew I needed to turn left to get back to the field, but found myself stuck behind a semi truck, also waiting to the take the right turn and I internally chided myself for being impulsive.

“You’re costing yourself extra time.” “And you don’t even know if you can find the field again.” 

After I was able to make the turn and get past the darn semi, my optimism rose, and the detour showed (according to the estimate of my iphone pin drop) it would take me about 15 minutes to arrive via the country roads.  After several turns, with the help of where I thought I should be going, I again saw the field and felt satisfied with my detour. The trees, surrounded by the green, were stunning. I took out my camera and took a few snaps. Wanting to get closer, I wandered around looking for a way in, but the field was surround by an almost moat like amount of water.  After capturing a few more angles, and having one almost wipe-out in a manure covered field, I hopped back in the Fit and was on the road once again. Feeling satisfied with my choice to stop, I mused over what an amazing world that surrounds us if we just take the time to see it.

-a wanderer-