“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”

-Henry David Thoreau

When K2 and I began WanderingPoetAdventures.com, it was a work in progress.  Truthfully, it still is.  We are changing and adapting as we go.  We prefer to let life just kind of steer the wheel for us as opposed to mapping everything out precisely.  It seems more natural, more organic, more real that way I suppose.  In the spirit of change, I would like to announce a few things.  Firstly, there will be more posts on the site going forward.  It is easy to get caught up with life and not post something on the blog from time to time, but it needs to be an exception and not the rule. And in that vein of more posts overall, there will also be a concerted effort to share more poetry, either of my own or others both great and small.  After all, the main reason for starting this blog was to share adventures, stories, and of course poetry. 

Secondly, we will be adding some space for additional contributors in some new Wandering Poet Guest Writer Corner.  The topics of these writings and musings will be fluid and eclectic and vary widely from week to week and month to month.  We felt it important to broaden our little corner of cyber space to hopefully inform, engage, or possibly just entertain those of you who take time out of your day to stop by and read. 

Lastly, is the announcement of fudge and candy.  Oh, you read that right crime stoppers… K2 and I are launching a homemade fudge and candy business.  We both love to be in the kitchen and have been learning from master cooks all our lives.  These cooks are our mothers, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers of today and yesterday.  It is their recipes that we hope to keep alive for any and all to enjoy.  A separate site will be set up for this eventually and is in progress, but if you are local to the middle Tennessee area and interested in any homemade chocolate, peanut butter, or maple nut fudge…or peanut butter balls, chocolate coconut squares, or hand made peppermint patties….oh, and pumpkin bread just for the fun of it…then you can contact me here for more information.  We are super excited about taking this on and hope to win you over with the taste very soon.

Honestly, it is a little daunting to take on a new business adventure.  Like so many things in life, there is a certain degree of trepidation and fear in taking on something new or out of the crosshairs of our comfort zone.  In considering this new endeavor, two quotes from two very different writers came to mind.  The first was Mark Twain, which I quote constantly to myself as well as to others.  Twain said,  

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So, throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

I have found this to be true in my life experience thus far.  While regret of decisions made are certainly to be discovered by anyone who has lived a few short decades, it is what I did not do, I did not say, or I did not try that haunts me the most.

The other quote is from Thoreau from Walden in which he states that “the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”  I think of this often.  How many of us go through our lives being complacent, apathetic, and passive? Most of us walking around suffer from unrealized potential and unfulfilled dreams.  So, why not boldly go into the unknown?  Why not throw caution to the wind and step out onto the platform of your dreams?  Gaze out at the open water, see the vastness of the never-ending sea of opportunities before you, and sail into the horizon where today’s dreams merge softly with tomorrow’s reality.

In the meantime…Happy Wandering!

K1