Stepping Stones or Stumbling Blocks?

"The only difference between stumbling blocks and stepping stones is how you use them."~Author Unknown.....  When I came across this quote I began pondering.  Yes, I know, I do that a lot.  I think that comes with age and with the placidity of the Bayou.  I have plenty of time to think since I gave up the "having to do this" and "having to go there" mentality.  Now that I spend most days never leaving the hillside, I have the time to ponder the many wonders of this old world.  The stumbling block and stepping stone thought came about as I weeded the pathway on the north side of the house.  This path meanders around under the citrus trees and makes it way to the little Frog Pond. Back when we put in the gravel on this particular pathway, the children were young and eager to do projects.  One summer, I swiped one of Mark's sacks of concrete mix and the kids and I made stepping stones for the path.  These "stones" were just dotted along the path as accent pieces. The kids pressed different leaves and items in the wet concrete to leave impressions.  There is one that has oak leaves and acorns, another has a pine branch and cone and another has a palmetto frond.  Then there are two that have hand prints with initials and the year scratched into them.  The two younger kids had made these as memory stones while my oldest decided that was "kid's stuff".  True..it was.  It was also mom's stuff.  I wish he had made a stepping stone, too.

Now, I am wondering if those stepping stones will become a stumbling block.  We are looking at different pieces of property with the intention of buying some acreage.  The area here around the Bayou has changed so much in the past few years that it is difficult to maintain the lifestyle to which we have come accustomed.  This area is city now..my Little Bayou House does not really fit anymore.  Not that the house itself does not fit..I guess it is me that does not fit.  Gone is the quietness, the solitude, the safety of my Bayou.  Gone is the rustic charm..we are more or less being squeezed out by progress.  I am ready to move on to some new adventure.

Or at least I thought I was..until today when I was weeding that pathway.  Once I came across those half-buried stepping stones, my mind went back to a different era..back to the days when the children played happily in the yard and roamed the creekbeds.  Memories started flooding into the brain and soon I was not sure if I will ever be able to leave my Bayou.  It will be like tearing out my heart.  This is the only area I have ever known.  As a child, I grew up across the road. I played in the fields and woods just as my father did when he was a child.  The land has been in the family for generations and to sell out seems almost like sacrilege.  The farm has long been taken over by a subdivision..the woods have all been cleared..the solitude  has been broken, but still it will be hard to leave.

 If and when we find the perfect place, things might be different for me.  I will shed a tear or two and will definitely miss my Bayou but if it is the right place and the right time, I will try to carve out a new existence.  As I stood looking at those concrete stepping stones, a thought hit me...I will be hauling those wherever we go!  Those and most everything else that I can tote with me!  Now, if I can only figure out how to get that Bayou moved!  I guess if this does come to a reality, I will have to become the "Misplaced Mississippi Bayou Lady"!