Heading up to Boston, MA

I am currently sitting on an Amtrak train going north to Boston to begin the next leg of my journeys. It has been nice and necessary to stay with my family in Sterling for these past couple of weeks because as I have said before, traveling places without much knowledge of the area and trying to learn as much about the place as possible has been a little stressful and a lot of work. Therefore it has been wonderful getting to stay with my family and enjoy their company and still doing a ton of fun things.

Yesterday, I woke up early and headed up to Shenandoah National Park to go on a hike and check out that area.

It was nice to go on a solo hike and be in my own thoughts for a few hours before making this new leg of my trip. I continue to notice that there are more and more trees in the east than the west. I am mostly used to the western part of the country as far as the outdoors goes, so it's cool to see this change in environment.

I hiked about a ten mile loop and didn't run into too many people so it was pretty nice. 

I hiked past a few places where the Appalachian Trail crossed my path and I thought that was cool how people make that pilgrimage on foot 2,180 miles from Georgia to Maine. Who knows, maybe one day that could be an adventure I embark on.

As for now, I will focus on this time in my life and try not to take things for granted like the free time that I have had to take this voyage. People have told me that this is one of the few times in life that I will have free time like this so I better enjoy it.

 

Taking things for granted is something that I pray that I don't do, yet it still happens. Even though three years ago I went through an accident that, by human standards, should have ended my life, I still take a few things for granted. It has definitely made me appreciate more things in life, but I still fall victim to not appreciating things every once in a while. Take it from my experience that you are living in a beautiful world and as long as you wake up in the morning, you don't have much to complain about. There were a few mornings after my accident that I didn't wake up and sure that made me who I am today, I never want to go through something like that again. All I know is that everything that happens in life gives glory to God and as long as that is taking place, it's all good! His plans are better than our plans.

What are you taking for granted that you don't need to?

Ryan