The first story in Jimmy Buffett’s first book “Tales from Margaritaville” is “Take Another Road” the story of cowboy Tully Mars. After major changes are forced upon his life against his will, Tully and his horse Mr. Twain, slowly make their way across the country to the Florida Keys and eventually beyond. He rides his pony through the sand and ends up in another place from a different time. And he finds contentment.
I’ve always loved both the story and the song.
A cold front blew across Tybee Island and a brisk wind blows from the north. Everyone is talking about how wonderful the weather is and how terrific it is in the fall.
I am not one of them. Give me warmer weather and a light ocean breeze. There is nothing worse than cold feet!
So I’m thinking about what road I want to take. Some place where the weather suits my clothes which should be minimal. So St. Martin is in my future again.
Conner called me yesterday and is already making plans for the things that we’re going to do. Hania, his wife, chimed in and those tinges of excitement are beginning to bubble. Before though, I have to go to Atlanta, New Orleans and Los Angeles. Oh, and the Georgia/Florida game is in there somewhere.
My geography has been very small over the course of the summer and through September, with a circle that went from my house to the Breakfast Club, the Bored meeting at Fannies, Shirley’s sad little holy dock, and the swing on the beach at the end of 12th Street. And I’ve enjoyed it like I never have in all of the years that I’ve called this clump of sand home!
After a career of making multiple decisions every day, I haven’t been making many lately. I needed a break and like Tully Mars have begun a new journey from my past to the things that lay in my future.
During this break, several things have become clear to me. First was that I really was one worn out, beaten up individual. Thirty years of saving the world on a grand scale took its toll in ways that I had no idea. It’s taken me a while to begin healing.
Then I’ve been learning how to live by myself for the first time ever in my life! In the beginning it was an incredible sense of loss which has now been replaced by quiet and slow motion.
I was a very public persona in Savannah, forever being quoted or interviewed and forever having people say that they loved me or hated me. Now I sit with Johnny O at the counter at the Breakfast Club and celebrating new days with my extended family there. Or I take my seat at the Bored meeting where yesterday we took chalk and marked off the “Nude Section” of the sidewalk. Important stuff!
And after years of relentlessly chasing things and people, now I sit on my beloved back deck and wait on things to come me. It has been a difficult transition but somehow I seem to be pulling it off. A customer sought me out and there is work to be done. Friends that I knew I had and friends that I had no idea who they were showed up. People that I thought I would have seen have disappeared but now I know who my friends are.
So I remain on this Sabbatical for a bit longer although it is getting ready to take another road. Last night in bed I lay staring at the silhouette of Palm trees in the darkness thinking these things. Reaching my hand to the other side of the bed I dreamed of touching new love.
I am ok. The roads that I’ve taken so far have been good ones. The one to college led me to friends that have reemerged. The one to Louisville led me to a career that has been an incredible ride. The one back to Savannah led me to success beyond my wildest dreams. The one to Tybee Island led me home.
Now it is time for another road I think, “any old place, in time or in space, you pick the century, I’ll pick the spot.”
