TRAVIS MCGEE STILL IN...

I’ve been listening to Jimmy Buffett for nearly 30 years now, and one of my bucket list items for ages was to head over to Cedar Key in Florida.

Now that I live less than three hours away from there, I had a couple of nights free and thought it was the perfect opportunity to finally make the trek over and try to finish some of the projects I’m working on right now.

What I found there was exactly what I was looking for.

Peace, quiet, and a walkable world along the Gulf. 

So much of what The Directors Cut is about is represented in that tiny town of 700 people. It is a place squarely rooted in the present, and when you cross over the tiny bridge onto the Key, it’s almost as if you’re issued an hourglass to keep track of time with.

When a grain of sand falls, you pay attention to it. 

Time seems to move slower as you meander around the streets.

The wandering helps keep you glued to where you are. 

I didn’t get a reprieve from working while I was there. I probably worked more the entire time, but I did it on foot, walking up and down the streets at my own pace, taking the time to jot down notes on a pad about things I saw that interested me. 

And the trip nearly didn’t happen.

In fact, I got all the way up until nearly 3 o’clock on the day I was supposed to leave before I finally made the final decision, and then was packed and out the door within 20 minutes.

It’s more than a little embarrassing to say that I probably wasted at least five or six hours (maybe more) second-guessing myself and wavering on my decision about where to go and what to do at least a dozen times, and that’s probably very conservative.

All I had to do was make a decision and stick with it.

There was no need to complicate anything.

I didn’t even have to go to Cedar Key to do what I did. I could’ve gone somewhere closer, somewhere that just had a Wi-Fi connection and a desk, and as long as it was something different, it would’ve been an adventure all the same. But instead, I hit the play button on life and stayed intimately interested in the movie I was in without feeling like I should be in another one. 

As it turns out, sometimes the most powerful escape for us is to just be present in our lives.

EO- Live a Life Worth Watching