signposts.

Up until a day ago I’ve been tracking the miles I’ve driven. The hours away from Charlotte. The days having lived on my own with my dog out of a car, suitcase, backpack. 

Having already driven 700 miles, not in the direction but in a direction, my Grandma squeezed me and told me to keep looking forward. 

11 days later I’m in Billings, MT on top of a field in the Four Dances Recreation Area. With my dog leading the way, we started this hike with a signpost that told us .35 to the overlook. We continued along the river bank, away from the direction we came but where I saw others, familiar from the parking lot, emerge from. We continue like this and come across a new signpost that reads .75 away to the parking lot. 

There was no post to tell me the quarter of the miles we’ve already done. In front of me was only a sign of what’s ahead and the distance before arriving. 

The only real evidence we’ve done any distance at all is landing exactly where we are.

I have no map or tracking device but I know concretely that we’ve done at least .35 and another .75 because of these signs, strategically put in place to offer comfort that we are still headed in the right direction. But in the inbetween, we traveled to the edges, went off the beaten path, forged and found our own way. Guided by an inner knowing that we were on the right path while simultaneously waiting for the next signpost to gently remind us to keep looking forward. 

It’s Sunday and I’m one week out from landing, planting, rooting in a new city. A city with new hope, new inspiration and big expansive bright skies. 

I counted. I’m only 800 miles away and soon to be closer. 

Later this day, as I arrive to the house I’ll call home for the next two nights, I walk along Shooting Star Ln, choosing so because I liked its name, and I see a black and white bird. What I would later Google to be a Black-billed Magpie - commonly known to sit on fences, street signs: signposts. Straight from the very official Whatsmyspiritanimal.com:

Magpie reminds you that everything in life has two sides, and sometimes what you see depends on where you look!

I can’t make this shit up. And at the same time, I wouldn’t want to. 

This life is freaking magic. 

Choose pleasure. Choose joy. Keep looking forward. And make freaking magic.