Coming Full Circle

My family moved away from Florida in 1962;  I was only 3 years old at the time. On July 17th, of 2016, I came home again, and now, a full 54 years have breezed by in the blink of an eye; I have, it seems, come full circle. 

With my grown twins now fully engaged in walking through all of the stages of life, that I have already come through, it has recently occurred to me that I too, have a full life to be lived -- and its just within my reach. I find myself all-at-once inspired, refreshed, and reinvigorated,  by all that I am learning and experiencing of the home-sweet-home, that my parents took the family, and left behind, so long ago. They made their choices, based on the times and situations in which they lived. Now I am making my own choices in the new season of life that I am in, based upon the life that I have lived, and all that it has now brought me to.  Divorce is always painful - it should be; still, there really are no do-overs in life. There is however, the ability in us all, to do better with what is ahead, than we did with what is now behind us. 

As I am now moving forward,  I am doing so with great hope and anticipation, as well as eyes-wide-opened; in part due to the lessons learned in bygone years. Yes, I have heard be-careful-out-there, no few times, from friends who express concern for my adventurous nature; and who likely think me to be somewhat naive, to the ways of the world for a newly single again  woman who still turns her fair share of heads, for someone so ancient as I.  Still, so long as my health and inner drive remain intact, I see no reason to allow all that can be frightening, or ominous in the world in which we live, to drown out all that is charming, and good.

In the short time that I have now lived in Pensacola, I have had the opportunity, (as a photographer) to go on no few treks, in search of the bright, the beautiful and the inspiring here, and I doubt that it will surprise many, that I have found no shortage of things to revel in.

Please don't misunderstand me, I have no allusions that I am the first to become so completely enamored by Pensacola, Florida, nor do I intend, with this blog to try to "educate" its lifetime residents, about its glorious grandeur. What I do intend, is to offer up my own fresh perspective, as someone who now finds herself looking at all that Pensacola holds, with fresh new eyes;  much like the toddler who picks up, and inspects every single thing on the ground, and thoroughly inspects it; if for no other reason than, that everything is so close to her eye-level that she sees things others would miss. I find that even having now been here for nearly a year, everything old here - is still very new to me; at my eye level.