Monday, September 28, 2009

Mr. Fred Is Coming

Just in case anyone hasn't heard, Mr. Fred, my significant most loved, enduring friend forever, and love of my life, i.e. husband is coming!!!!! As of this writing, he will be landing in Baltimore in 1 week, 1 day, 3 hours, and 20 minutes -- but who's counting?  It has been 6 months of East is East and West is West, no I got that wrong, we are both West.  I guess West is a matter of perspective.  Anyway, back to the subject matter at hand.

After 31 years of marriage and raising a family in one of the most beautiful places on earth, Santa Fe, NM; we are re-retiring to the land of "milk and honey" where rivers are born and abundant life grows at every turn in the road.  My definition of beauty has taken a turn.  Before, beauty has been described in metaphors of starkness with many contrasts and abstract lines intersecting to create land and sky scapes of linear vastness and grandeur. That is not so here.  The beauty here is in the softness of a Monet or Renoir painting with no hard lines and a constantly changing landscape. 

Since arriving to this small, remote valley high in the Allegeheny Mountains of West Virginia my senses have been blown away by the continuously changing landscape.  It is a living picture, in constant motion.  Every sunrise brings an experience of new life that has never before been seen by these eyes, except in drawings and pictures and words that painted imagery in my mind.  I feel much like the child raised in the city who has never experienced farm life, finding out that eggs, come from chickens, and that vegetables are picked from plants.  I know these plants exist, I've bought them at the nursery or Walmart.  But suddenly I am finding them in their natural state--growing wild in the woods and forest from whence they came.  WOW!!  Mountain sides of shasta daisies, snowball bushes back in the woods, sweet cherry trees all through the countryside, growing wild.  Every week it seems like there are new discoveries to be made.
One of my most precious moments was when I was walking by a tree and noticed moss growing all around the base of the tree.  I stopped to look at it and found a group of wild violets nestled in the roots of the tree amongst the moss.  I love violets.  I have never seen real ones, only sketches or pictures, but this was one of those moments that took my breath away.  I knelt down and took a few minutes to just feast my eyes upon the lovely sight and relish in the joy that they were every bit as delicate and beautiful as my mind's eye had ever imagined.  If time would have allowed, I would have sat down and soaked in the joy and quiet of the moment and location...but had to get back up and continue on to where I was headed.  Of my first 6 months here, that was probably my best and dearest ah-ha...as the love for the violets dates back to a book I read about this very area as a kid.  The young lady of the book's favorite flower was violets and the author's description so vivid that like the young lady, I too fell in love with the violets and looked for sketches and pictures of them to keep. 
Now Fred is coming and I will be able to share this wondrous valley and the surrounding mountains with him.  I do hope he enjoys the beauty and serenity as much as I have come to.  I really think he will.  He will be arriving just at the peak of the autumn color.  What a time to settle in and see what the land has to offer.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

The Autumn Cathedral

A friend sent me a note today referring to my little daily tidbits as "muses". I smiled when I read that, because how else could the soul express itself, but to burst forth in poetic wonder as I look out every morning at the beauty that comes with the dawn of each day.



Today, the day awoke with a slow, steady, drizzle alternating with a pouring rain. In spite of that, the light of the sun managed to filter through the mist and fog and light up the color of the landscape around the house. I couldn't stand it.....here I sit, mere miles from high country and some of the prettiest foliage in the land.


The next thing I knew, the front end of my SUV was poking it's nose out of the drive and pointing it's way up the Big Run. Over the next 2 hours I found myself winding over the hills and down the high mountain valleys between Cherry Grove and Elkins. It was a slow and lazy drive, as only those who were forced to be out shared the road with me this day. I didn't mind, it wasn't a day for crowded roads and lots of traffic.


As the lay of the road ascended and descended, fingers of fog and mist would float across the road softening the surrounding landscapes of color into one of Renoirs' paintings of muted color.


Yet, down the road, as I would round a corner and come out of a heavy canopy of trees into the light that was diffused by thinning clouds and mist, the world would burst suddenly into a surreal imagery of florescent color jumping out from the darker greens and blacks of the forest behind.


Upon arriving back home, several hours later, I sat back and reflected on the beauty of what I had seen.


Suddenly I realized that I had spent a day in the Cathedral of Heaven with the the Glory of the Lord shining through the panes of the windows of the world He had created. For only God could have created such beauty and such a magnificent stained-glass display demonstrating the beauty of his work. I thanked God for the privilege of worshiping for the day at His feet in the Cathedral of His Creation.


It is my deepest prayer that I was able, this day, to share some of the wonder of the day with you. Maybe you might take the time and find a place to go find where God has placed a Cathedral near you and go spend a day in His presence and allow His wonder to wash over you in awe.


God Bless You.


Karen