[Editor's note: We'd like to welcome our newest columnist, Bill Pendergraft, who will be sharing stories of a slower Lowcountry life. The first installment comes from his project Slow Guides™   Regional guides for the mindful traveler.]

“When it hurts, we return to the banks of certain rivers.”  -Czeslaw Milosz

I am visiting my mother-in-law, Mary Lib, and after Sunday lunch and good conversation, I note a complex jigsaw puzzle she’s assembling on her card table.  Her puppy is sleeping beneath.  The puzzle features all fifty states, and their state flowers, birds and a perfect frame woven from a tangle of botanical diversity.  

“I see you’re almost finished,” I ask her, pointing to the unfilled …