It was an eventful week filled with emotional milestones. I spent most of the week up in Georgia again to ready my home for a new tenant. As I’ve shared previously, I put my house up for sale two months ago and in doing so, invested considerable energy and funds to make it shine.

I haven’t actually lived there for the last three years and I’ve been a landlord for two sets of tenants that used that house as a haven during a time of transition. Everytime I try to sell my former home, it seems to have a mind of its own.

There’s a “lesson” there I guess. We make our plans, but sometimes there is a litany of factors that are out of our control and we need to adapt to what the universe has planned for us, and others. 

I thought about this on my most recent two-hour ride home from St. Marys, GA to my now official home in Crescent City, FL. That trip puts me on I-95 South for one hour before my exit with another hour to go on county roads. I know that stretch of highway like the back of my hand and on Thursday I was making really good time on 95 until I read the digital message on a large display on the side of the road that announced some kind of emergency had taken place and ALL lanes were closed a few miles up ahead.

That is pretty rare and drastic. As traffic slowed, a significant show of law enforcement appeared amid flashing emergency lights. As cautioned, all cars were really being diverted at the World Golf Village exit in St. Augustine. My Google Maps reconfigured and I was set on an alternate route that took me through a series of back roads that eventually got me on a route not far from home. 

The interesting thing was that it didn’t really take me much longer than my regular route and it brought me to an area I’d never been, including a place called Molasses Junction. This was a clear sign for me to “slow down” and if I return I’ll be sure to visit the famous Molasses Junction General Store I passed. 

Besides working on my house that was home to Rich and I for not quite two years, last week also presented the three year anniversary of my dad’s passing, the anniversary of my engagement to Rich 31 years ago and the 4.5 year milestone of my widowhood.

That’s alot.

I’m often quick to just power through without slowing down to process these types of events, or admit that these dates can be heavy. Memories abound. My dad spent some time living with Rich and I in my Georgia home until his advancing dementia requried more professional supervision. Ironically, he outlived Rich by a year-and-a-half. 

In my ongoing edit of a memoir I’ve written, I begin my story with the account of the alternate route that began in early October 2021 on the day that put me on a road with a twist I didn’t see coming and definitely not a route we had planned. As for the future of this personal project, I’ve made some plans for it, but let’s see what additional twists and turns will present along its path to publication, one that has already had many.

Happy May and wishing you all safe travels as you navigate your own alternate routes.