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How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. - Annie Dillard

Travels with Charley

I recently read “Travels with Charley” by John Steinbeck, what a timely book for us!! Mr. Steinbeck spent 3 months traveling across the United States with his dog, Charley. I can’t begin to describe how timely this book was for me or how the more I read Steinbeck’s work the more respect I have for him. Where I had no words he put into words what I was thinking, feeling, and seeing. Here are a few excerpts that I loved.

“I had not heard the speech of America, smelled the grass and trees and sewage, seen its hills and water, its color and quality of light. I knew the changes only from books and newspapers.”

I have wrote before about the tugging inside of myself to be at home close to my family and to travel and explore and live in different cultures. When I read of another land I want to go see it for myself, that will never change. I always want to be one who sees for myself, I just need that for some reason.

“I saw in their eyes something I was to see over and over in every part of the nation- a burning desire to go, to move, to get under way, anyplace, away from any Here. They spoke quietly of how they wanted to go someday, to move about, free and unanchored, not toward something but away from something. I saw this look and heard this yearning everywhere in every states I visited. Nearly every American hungers to move.”

I am encouraged that others are feeling as I feel. I have been blessed to have the ability to go and move all throughout my life. Dustin and I have talked of settling in Portland. I fear that freedom of going might be fleeting with future plans of buying a house, having a baby, and starting a church. Whatever happens, I appreciate my past and hope in my future.

“I’ve lived in good climate, and it bores the hell out of me. I like weather rather than climate…And in the humid ever-summer I dare his picturing mind not to go back to the shout of color, to the clean rasp of frosty air, to the smell of pine wood burning and the caressing warmth of kitchens. For how can one know color in perpetual green, and what good is warmth without cold to give it sweetness?”

I know that I harp on Florida a lot, specifically how I don’t like living there. Steinbeck puts into words what I’ve felt but am not articulate enough to convey myself.

I recommend this read for anyone, especially those that are traveling. One friend that I thought of the whole time I was reading was Jamie Simkins. Have you read it Jamie? I don’t know why, but I thought of you.
Read More 3 comments | Posted by Kelli Bagby edit post

3 comments

  1. Anonymous on 2:45 PM

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  2. Anonymous on 8:30 AM

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  3. Kelli Bagby on 8:16 AM

    Jamie, it is so sweet to have a home that you love, that's part of the dilemna!! He also says, "When I was very young and the urge to be someplace else was on me, I was assured by mature people that maturity would cure this itch....Nothing has worked."

    For some I don't know that the longing ever leaves, and those are the ones that tour the country with their dog for 3 months and write books about it for the others who once longed to do the same thing.

    Definitely read the book, you'll love it.

     


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kelli-girl

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Kelli Bagby
Portland, Oregon, United States
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they said it better than I

Motherhood is the greatest privilege of life. May Roper Coker

Books I Want to Read in 2010

  • Surprised by Hope - NT Wright
  • Prayer - Richard Foster
  • Hunting & Gathering - Anna Gavalda

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    14 years ago
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  • Smith Family
    13 years ago
  • Tanya
    16 years ago

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  • Eight is Enough
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      • For Abbie, my friend
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