The Road

Breaking away, claiming time as your own, living in wonder.

“The road to enlightenment is long and difficult, and you should try not to forget snacks and magazines.”

— Anne Lamott, from Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith.

I folded up my laptop and my anxieties and left them both behind.

We drove south to Virginia. Down the Delmarva peninsula, back in time, down that long quiet highway framed by fallow farm fields, low-slung chicken houses, forgotten farmhouses, red barns bleached pink. The occasional Royal Farms convenience store, home to world-famous fried chicken and Krispy Kreme donuts.

Out of sight to the east and west, the ponies of Assateague, the oysters of Chincoteague, the quaint Victorian cottages of Cape Charles. Long stretches of sandy pine forest, loblollies eight stories high, the treetops narrowing to an elusive point in the distance.