What’s Next?

Hello friends!  I’m beginning to reorient to my life here at home. After driving 7,174 miles in 95 days, sleeping in something like 48 different beds, being in the presence of the awe-inspiring Mississippi River for 3 months, meeting hundreds of interesting, open-hearted people, learning about their lives and about life itself, I am home. It feels wonderful and it is actually quite an adjustment.

Interestingly, I might have expected that I would be pretty road-weary, or at least that I might have been tired of the loading and unloading, moving every two days, lugging a 40-pound backpack of camera gear everywhere I went, getting lost, eating microwaved soups and vacuum-packed tuna and being constantly on the go from 5 am till 10 pm.  The journey was, however, so full of wonder, beauty and life, that those things were for the most part, easily accepted. Although the days were very full, they were never stressful.  Because I understood who was in charge, I could be fully in each moment, without concern of looking forward or backward.  The River taught me so much – it will be unfolding in my consciousness for a very long time.  My task now is to live at home with that same level of surrender.

It was also truly wonderful to be connected to all of you through this blog. The journey was a shared experience. Often I would meet someone, see or do something and immediately think of sharing it with you. Your presence here made the experience so much richer!  Thank you again for being with me.

From the start, this project has created itself and I am simply fortunate to be able to participate. What’s next seems to be organizing the mountains of information and untold thousands of images and then watching the project transform into its new shapes.

There are, at this point, a couple of possibilities for book publishers, but it’s not yet time to make that decision.   If you have any thoughts or suggestions for possibilities to explore, I would love to hear them! Also, once the book and the slide show are ready, I will enjoy sharing them wherever there is an interest. I welcome any suggestions for that as well!

I plan to keep the posts from the journey available here – so you can revisit or share them if you like – and will occasionally post new developments. Please feel free to email me for any reason at all or to continue to post comments. I love hearing from you!

I am creating a database of names and contact information of folks interested in knowing about progress toward completion and publication dates. If you would like to be included, just send me an email with your information at  gayle@gayleharper.com. Please put “Updates” in the subject line.

For now, I’ll leave you with this shot of a little friend I met in a south Louisiana swamp, but didn’t have the chance to introduce to you.  She seemed sweet enough, but it was probably a fine idea to keep those jaws securely closed! 

Merry Christmas and may your New Year shine with the Light of Serendipity!!

Love,    Gayle