"not all who wander are lost"

I long to travel. I always have.

My family has never been much of a traveling family. Not that they hate it or dislike it; they actually really enjoy it. It's just not high on the priority list.

That's always been tough for me. I can't just up and go wherever I want to whenever I want to. I just turned 16.

But I yearn to see places. So so desperately. I live in an amazing place. Tennessee is beautiful.

memphis, tennessee

 But it's all Ive ever known. People travel long and far to hike the smokey mountains, picnic by the mighty missisisppi river, walk down Beale street, visit the Opry Land Hotel. I get to do those things all the time. I am lucky. But the beauty of it fades over time like a blind spot. You look right over it. I can't help that. I long to see some place different. I travel to nearby places often (Missisippi, Kentucky, Alabama, Arkansas) and it is a lot. I love to travel when I can. And I do get to. But I have started to feel like the walls are closing in on me and I can't escape. I stare at pictures of places that in reality aren't far at all, but impossibly far for me.

I want to be able to go places and experience those places.

i want to eat pastries and sip coffee in a quiet cafe in london or paris.

 breathe in the smoke from a fire crackling deep in the mountains of colorado. 

walk through a forest of evergreens, my hair dusted with snow.

  to sit on a beach of white sand, not a single soul or sign of civilization in sight, and stare into the crystal clear water and the fish whirling around my feet.

 to look out of an airplane and look down and see blue. only blue.

i want to look out over a field and see horses grazing, hay bales, and the only sound be that of the grass swaying in the wind

 i want to drink a strawberry milkshake while taking a walk on the sidewalks of mobile, alabama.

 i want to shop in fun and cute boutiques in charleston, south carolina.

I want to walk down tiny streets of places with names I have never even heard of.

It's hard to be content. It's hard to accept the fact that God has put me here, when I want to be somewhere else, if only for a short while. Don't get me wrong, I love my home. I don't want to move. I love where I am. But I want short snippets of time where i can be a different person in a different place. 

I want to see new things. Taste new food. Hear new sounds. Meet new people. I don't think a person is meant to stay in one place for very long, otherwise man wouldn't have a want to see the world.

I pray that God shows me where he wants me to go. I pray that he is able to show me the absolute wonders that he has made. Not that man has made. Man did not make the earth. God created the earth in a single breath. And look how beautiful it is.

God made this earth for man to enjoy. God made this earth and all that is in it to praise him. Even the stars worship Him. 

His creation amazes me every day. I can't wait to see more of it.

Mark 16:15