This weekend I went on a road trip with two of my best friends, we went up into the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia, a place I've only been a handful of times. I had been to Natural Bridge, I had been to Harrisonburg, I had been to Charlottesville, but never Roanoke and never Salem. To get to any of these places, you have to drive in the same direction, take the same path, so the journey up wasn't all that new, but something was different about this trip.
Maybe it was because I was with friends instead of my family (the people I usually travel with), or maybe it was because I knew I was going somewhere new, but I felt so alive. Now that is not to say that I don't enjoy traveling with my family, in fact, I love travelling with them. I think it was just nice to travel with someone new, going somewhere new.
This is going to make me sound like I am losing my mind, but I feel like I have to tell you this. I cried when we drove past the cows. Yeah... I know what you are thinking... "she's weird."
Well, you are probably not wrong. Correction, you're definitely not wrong. But I have a really good reason. Allow me to explain.
So I'm sitting in the back of my friend's SUV, the windows in the front are down, old Taylor Swift is screaming "YOU BELONG WITH ME" on the radio, and I'm just looking out the window watching the mountain hills and the acres and acres of farmland go by me. The world surrounding me is blue. The mountains, the fog, even the clouds in the sky look a little blue. I am taking in the beauty of the world, the purity of nature and then we drive past a field of cows. At first I just thought to myself, "aw they are so cute!" Then we drove past more cows, and then more cows, until we had seen maybe 200 cows. At this point I'm overwhelmed. I am just staring out the window at these beautiful calves and cows. Some of the baby cows are lying in a pile of mud, others are grazing in the emerald green field, their parents watching them in the distance. Suddenly I realize I'm crying. Overwhelmed with the beauty of the place I was in and the innocence and purity of the baby cows, I couldn't help but cry.
Their magnificence was beautiful, the mountains were breathtaking, the farmland was awe striking, the experience was surreal, and my company was magical.
It's been a long time since I have felt that happy and something has felt that right. In the midst of the mountains and the beauty of the nature around me, I somehow felt safe, I felt love, I felt inspired.
I can't quite explain it, but in the mountains I felt alive.
XOXO GB
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