Amazing Grays: Let's take a ride~on the countryside

Hop in the car, go with me
You don't have to pack everything
Don't you wanna feel the breeze
and forget everything?

Try to change the things you can
And accept all the things you cannot
I know you wanna fly away from the world
But for now with the time we've got

Let's take a ride on the countryside
Let's just get away.

~Justin Timberlake

The more we have gotten the hang of our routines (each of us are nearing the first anniversary of our careers) the more comfortable and confident we become with what we are doing. The more I work my job, the more I come to appreciate and enjoy driving from one place to the next at times throughout the day.
I admit that, at first, I chose to focus on some of the negative things about traveling in the community and going directly to the client; getting lost in the middle of nowhere (and there are ALOT of "middle of nowhere"s in Arkansas.), shoddy cell service, unsuspected flat tires, bad weather, toting heavy bags, and suspicious neighborhoods. Most of that was based on fear and uncertainty. As with every situation in life, perspective is everything. The way we choose to see things determines our happiness in life, and I had let my poor perspective affect my contentment.

Now, I cannot imagine being inside the same four walls all day. When I'm on my way from one place to the next, armed with a sonic drink in the cup holder and music from my favorite station, I get a nice mental break from work. There are moments that I realize what a beautiful day it is and stop singing whatever song I'm belting down the road and think, "I am working right now!"

And my favorite part is getting to see so many gorgeous, interesting, and different scenes along the way. For a girl who loves country fields and barns and is obsessed with houses, it couldn't be more perfect. After realizing how charming some of the places I pass by are, I started keeping my camera in my console everyday, just in case I stumbled upon a beautiful place I didn't want to forget...Or wanted to share with you!

Here's a collection of some of the places I've been. Here's what it's like to be a traveling therapist.

Wide open country road. That I usually have to myself.

But sometimes, this is the traffic I share it with...

On my way to unknown locations.

Rustic barns...

...in open fields.

::He gets up before the dawn
Packs a lunch and a thermos full of coffee
It's another day in the dusty haze
Those burnin' rays are wearing down his body
And diesel's worth the price of gold
And it's the cheapest grain he's ever sold
But he's still holding on. ::

And a little cobblestone cottage in the woods.

Anywhere is paradise; it's up to you. ~Author Unknown

This southern home is perched on its own hill.

::Said we can fire it up and I can show you around
Sit up on the hill and watch the sun go down
When the fireflies are dancing and the moon comes out
We can turn on the lights and head back to the house

Or we can take another ride on my big green tractor
We can go slow or make it go faster
Down through the woods and out to the pasture
'Long as I'm with you it really don't matter::

This GORGEOUS 'Notebook' house is tucked away in a grove of trees in Hughes. And has made me consider bright kelly green shutters! Every time I drive by, I imagine Noah and Allie on the side porch swing.

:Up those stairs, in that little back bedroom
Is where I did my homework and I learned to play guitar.
And I bet you didn't know, under that live oak
My favorite dog is buried in the yard:

The Waverly Plantation, or "The Waverly place" as Dad and the family would say when asked where they were working that day.

Look at everything as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time. ~Betty Smith

"A Painted House" in Lepanto, the set of the movie based on John Grisham's novel. Filmed here in 2003, the novel/movie was inspired by his childhood in Arkansas. Set in the summer/fall of 1952, the story is about the youngest boy in a cotton farming family that live in a little house that has never been painted. They struggle through heat, floods, and fatigue, trying to stay above water and out of debt.

"It was a Wednesday, early in September 1952. The Cardinals were five games behind the Dodgers with three weeks to go, and the season looked hopeless. The cotton, however, was waist-high to my father, over my head, and he and my grandfather could be heard before supper whispering words that were seldom heard. It could be a "good crop." "

This is Jimmy Garrott's home that was once an old cotton gin. I toured it once when it was one of the homes on our annual community Christmas Home tour and it is something you have to see to believe! Here's the excerpt from HGTV's 'Building Character'.

Jimmy Garrott grew up working around the family cotton gin. The massive 6,000-square-foot corrugated steel building was then filled with machinery that seeded cotton and packed it into 500-pound bales.
The cotton gin closed in the 1970s and the building sat vacant for several years until Garrott decided to move in. It took several years and a little trial-and-error with the renovation before Garrott could really call the building home.
Today the gray metal exterior offers no hint of the elegant space inside. Garrott decorated with antiques, green onyx, old tapestries and his collection of cotton farming memorabilia. For Garrott, saving this piece of his heritage has been a life-transforming experience.