Monday, December 9, 2013

Day 337 of the 365 Days of Blogging

The author/publisher,
Dane F. Baylis

ESCAPE IS ONE OF THE EXQUISITE WORDS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

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It denotes getting away. From the everyday, from the routine, from schedules and deadlines and the pressure of staying in and on your game. It connotes going away, getting away from the prison of our own surroundings, a job, not an avocation but that thing we do to keep body and soul together in hopes that what is our soul one day can succor us as much physically as it does emotionally. It implies relief and rejuvenation. It bears away the burdens and gives new and intricate boundary to hearts held too long immobile and flightless. It can be frightening in that it removes the common place and comfortable, hurling us into those arenas where we are forced to learn new ways of processing what we encounter. It takes away the blinders and dark glasses and causes us to see anew even those things we think we know.
 
I have escaped! Far into the Southern Californian mountains where the high today was only 27 degrees Fahrenheit and the Editor-in-Wife and I went hiking in noticeably thin air over snow covered trails in incredible vistas. We purchased two new vases for our home and had an incredible conversation with the photographer Timothy Wolcott in his gallery. We shopped for Christmas presents and just revelled in being so far removed from our Coastal Californian environment that we are like the two far younger people we were, sharing the thrill of each other's company for the first time.
 
I have already written new poetry, inspired by the weather and scenery and a rather eccentric connection to my family history and the Big Bear area. I am working through the revision of a short story with charge of creativity and opening of pathways I wasn't aware existed in the context of the tale prior to the trip up here. So much is subverted in the routine of the day-to-day that, in a flash, a change of locale and stimulus shakes away the dust and detritus and opens the eyes, mind, and heart.
 
The evenings are crackling fires in a stone fireplace, black coffee, and hot cocoa. We sit together, each one absorbed in their particular artistic bent or lost in a book and knowing that just being in this place together is perhaps as close to perfect as anything could be. We've contemplated checking into the possibility of a long term lease or even buying a small place here, but we do that every time we run away. It hasn't happened yet, but who's to say it won't. If nothing else, it reminds us of those early times when we first considered marrying and settling down and window shopped realtors after hours. Thirty-three years later, it's still magic.
 
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Meanwhile...live, love, write, while in secret you too gather the tools and supplies to facilitate your flight to freedom.
 
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page. You can leave comments in the form below. I can be reached directly at dbaylis805@gmail.com . You can also find links to some of the sites I visit from time to time on the right. I'm also looking for submissions to the Your Work/Your Love page. Authors retain all rights.
 
Tomorrow,
 
Dane F. Baylis
Author/Publisher.

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