PENNING AMID THE PINES

So here I sit in my new writing room, beginning my third 40 Days of Writing challenge, with so much to write about I barely know where to begin!

Perhaps the best place to start is to describe the stunning view outside my new writing room windows, er, screens!

Yes, I am, as I type, cozied up under a pile of blankets on my screened-in porch on this cool South Carolina evening, staring out at a nearby row of  fragrant giant pines, listening to the soothing rhythm of a fall rain.

OK, technically it is not "my" screened-in porch. The porch -- my new cyber penning haven -- is but one of the lovely rooms in this spacious townhouse belonging to my good friend, Mary. She has graciously given me a roof over my head, a temporary office job, and oodles of inspiration and encouragement as I embark upon what can only be described as, well, a journey. A quest.

What else to call this crazy leap of faith I have taken since the last 40 Days of Writing challenge?

With my family's blessings, I left my home, a 40-hour-a-week job with benefits, and the familiarity of small-town Iowa for a shot at a new life...a different state (with entirely different flora and fauna), a different job and complete anonymity.

Why?

Why not?

Time to take a chance, enjoy an adventure. Re-discover, perhaps re-invent, myself. Again.

Find my smile.

Hard not to smile while watching the sun rise over Myrtle Beach, or feeling the salty spray of the Atlantic Ocean while splashing through the warm, rolling waves, lost in the search for the perfect seashell.

The cure for anything, they say, is salt water -- tears, sweat and the sea.

Indeed, I've had a couple of good, soul-wrenching cries since I got here, and have done my fair share of sweating as I've happily traipsed along the beach on cloudless 81-degree afternoons.

As for the sea, well...where else can you feel so small and alone yet so connected to the rest of the humanity? The ocean's vastness just naturally puts problems and the past in perspective.

Look at the faces of the people streaming slowly, quietly, single file, along the tide's edge early on a Sunday morning in early October.

Serenity. Pure and simple.

The perfect mindset for beginning my third 40 Days of Writing challenge, wrapped in blankets, ensconced in my new writing room amid the South Carolina pines, listening to the rhythm of a fall rain.

 Truly, a 24/7 writer's retreat.

Smiling!

Stay tuned.