“Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sight; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.”

-- Miriam Beard

I spend a lot of time on the road these days, driving to my part-time job, workshops, movies, the doctor’s office, and the grocery store. I find that when I’m relaxed and focused at the wheel, I enjoy the ride. Seed thoughts arise when I’m in that space. Sometimes I even have to pull over to jot them down so I can expand on them later.

As a child in a military family, traveling from place to place every few years, my life was often turned upside down as we moved to each new posting. I loved maps back then because they situated me in a new place.

My journal is a map of the inner road I have traveled from the past and a guide into the future. X marks the present. When thoughts arise about present troubles, challenges, and insights, I pull into this rest stop for reflecting. Maps still situate me.

Journaling has become my map of the places I find love and belonging; a record of happiness peaks and valleys of longing; a picture of the joyful all-out straight-aways; the story of the curves and off-ramps of missed opportunities. This is a map for looking back at the places I’ve been and a dreaming place for the next leg of the life journey.

~ Kathie Sutherland

“My favorite thing is to go where I have never gone.”

-- Diane Arbus

“Your world is as big as you make it.”

-- Georgia Douglas Johnson