Dear Friend,

Last weekend we hiked to Andrews Bald, a bare grassy place on top of a mountain where you can see the entire world. Okay maybe not the entire world, but about 50 square miles of it. Just imagine how big that is to an ant or an aphid.

When I visit places like that, places that make me feel like I've just stepped through a wardrobe into Narnia, it puts my whole life quickly into perspective. Everything complicated falls away. It reminds me of that scene in The Perks of Being a Wallflower when Charlie is standing up in the back of the speeding truck (dangerously I might add) through a tunnel:

"And we could all sit around and wonder and feel bad about each other and blame a lot of people for what they did or didn't do or what they didn't know. I don't know. I guess there could always be someone to blame. It's just different. Maybe it's good to put things in perspective, but sometimes, I think that the only perspective is to really be there. Because it's okay to feel things. I was really there. And that was enough to make me feel infinite. I feel infinite."

The only perspective is to really be there.

If you don't go, you don't see.

I hope I get to see a lot of new things this summer. I hope I get to feel a lot of new things.

Like today I saw an ladybird beetle nestled in a purple clover. She was covered in pollen. Her little wings popped out when I picked her up as if to try and scare me off. I found her when I was walking up a road I'd never walked up before.

What if together we made a goal for the summer to stop at a new place at least once a week? Like drive over the hill to a new town and visit the local diner? Or find a new hike nearby? Or visit a junkyard....there's some amazing stuff to be found in junk yards. Or go gold panning. For real, I just bought these. There's a whole Little House on the Prairie episode on gold panning...for fool's gold.

At least once a week tag something new you've discovered on Instagram with #ifyoudontgoyoudontsee and tag the city as well so others can add it to their list of things to do because it's all about sharing our secret adventurous finds too, right? I'll be reposting a few here and there as the summer goes along.

Let the summer begin.

Love,

Ashley

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