Brian and I have been traveling back and forth between Charleston and Savannah about once a week for the past few weeks, and although we have done this drive many many times before, it never ceases to amaze me. The drive between the two cities is beautiful and largely untouched by civilization. Stretches of forest and swampland alternate between rivers, lily-pad ponds, and patches of marsh-grass landscapes along this stretch of the lowcountry. I have driven a good portion of this highway, which runs all the way up through my hometown in Virginia and farther north up the coast, but have yet to find a prettier stretch than this one.
For the first time ever, Brian and I decided to stop at every breath-taking view of water, marsh, swamp, and grassland we passed along the way. We even detoured to see the picturesque Old Sheldon Church outside of Beaufort, S.C. which photographers love so much. I treasure days like these, when the weather is beautiful enough to lure us to a quiet space we would normally only have time to glance at. With a few hours of light left in the day, Brian put on his flashers and pulled over on the grassy shoulder of the road. Carefully he made his way up onto the roof of the jeep to get a better view of the vast Lowcountry landscape. At times, I held the camera out of the window, clicking as the lush green landscape whizzed by. They were brief encounters, but worth an extra minute or two of our time.
A stop at the Old Sheldon Church reminded me of mortality; the lovely structure, a skeleton of it’s past glory, was lined with the graves of past residents: infants and small children, teenagers and twenty-year-olds. Few made it to a ripe old age even by the turn of the century. I’ve been so busy lately, that I’ve barely had time to catch my breath, but these photographs are a testament to the great big beautiful lush world that surrounds me. If there’s one thing I learned from sailing, it’s this: when the weather is nice, it’s important to stop and appreciate, you never know when the next storm will blow through – be it metaphorical or physical. Life is happening. Our time – to appreciate, enjoy, and participate in – is now. It’s important to breathe it all in and to relax a little.
