Letter to A Soldier

Hello and Happy Holidays ~

Right now I am sitting on the front porch at about 2700 feet looking at the mountains.  There is a cool breeze now.  Our evenings are getting colder, going to the thirties and upper twenties.  It has been extremely dry for months.  Crows are squawking in the background and the chimes are swaying in the wind. 

I hope you don’t mind me typing this.  My typing is faster than my long hand and there is much I would like to share with you.

My home is in western North Carolina.  Although I am originally from the Baltimore, Washington, D.C.  area.    I was born in Baltimore and lived several places along the east coast.  Fifteen years ago, I moved south to be close to the Great Smoky Mountains of western North Carolina.  This fulfilled my long standing desire to live in the mountains.   The Blue Ridge Parkway is twenty minutes to the east.

My town is just twenty-five minutes outside the national park which is west of me and is also the most visited part in the United States.  It also has no fee.  That is in part because it connects North Carolina to Tennessee.  

We have elk, black bear, coyote, fox, skunk, deer, raccoons, panther (though the wildlife folks won’t admit to it (because they would have to file a 300 page wildlife plan) many have seen them) just to name a few.  It is a quieter pace of life and I really enjoy that.  Western Carolina University is fifteen minutes away.  It is part of the NC university system.  There are rivers here, the main one being the Tuckaseigee, pronounced tuck a see gee just as it is spelled.  It means river of the turtle in Cherokee. Kayaking, rafting and tubing are popular sports.  This area is also part of the scenic rivers and flyfishing trail.  The Cherokee Boundary is twenty minutes away.  We also have wonderful lakes.

The trees are quickly losing their leaves.  The dogwoods are losing their rust leaves, the maples their goldish green ones.   I am grateful for the evergreens ~ white pines, hemlocks that didn’t get the wooly adelgid (bug), Norway maple,  which are always so pretty against a new fallen snow. 

I will close for now.  Wishing you a wonderful holiday!

To my readers. I have left out a few personal items to protect my privacy, but not in my letter to a soldier.  

 You can write them a letter, too.  Please see the address below.  Happy Holidays!

Enough Already!

I don't go on to Facebook much anymore.  Why would I?

There is a continual barrage of fake news from many sides.  Then there are the negative comments, minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day.  Almost everything is negative.  The whining is beyond overwhelming.

Are you on the triangle or square?  I don't know why I asked that because I don't much care.  I don't care if you thought the election consisted of three or four candidates. What really matters is this. Was the election a fraud?  Is the system archaic?  I suspect both answers would be a "YES."  But most of you don't really care.

As the wife of a physician said recently in response to whether she would join the Women's March on Washington January 21, 2017, "it depends what is going on in my life."  Face plant.  Right?

And this my loyal readers is what we have.  We have a society of complainers.   They would rather sit on Facebook, analyze the election, complain, and talk about how they are the disenfranchised.  After all, they are entitled.  Have any marched on washington?  Met with their political representatives?  Helped a family or person in need?  I don't think so.

They won't change much about what they will do. They will continue wear their trendy safety pins, don bumper stickers on their cars, wear a nifty baseball cap. And you wonder why the election did not go in their favour?

This entry has been hard to write.  I am annoyed.  Disappointed.  Exhausted at the laziness of these people.  It is one miserable post after another.

You won't find me on Facebook much. I'll be outside filling the holes dug up nightly by a huge raccoon and its three friends.  I am hoping to find a Hav-A-Heart cage and someone with a truck to relocate the destructive bandit and company.  Or working on a supplies list for the firefighters again. No doubt I will be working with people on a few sides of the political spectrum.  We will focus on making things better.

A dear friend who is a Trump supporter is doing just that.  He doesn't spend his time in joy over the election.  He knows there is a lot to do on both sides. He is building an older woman a new roof.  Patching a leaky roof for a church member.  Mentoring a little girl whose drug addicted father passed away.  Does he fit your profile of the OTHER side? Hardly.  You made up your mind who these people were long ago.

Get out there and act like a citizen.  Pay it forward and never forget that...

ETERNAL VIGILANCE IS THE PRICE OF LIBERTY

Wendell Phillips

Loving Lives

It is another glorious day in paradise.  I awakened to a beautiful blue sky, patches of white clouds scattered about and trees bending in the wind.  There are more leaves on my little patch of heaven than I can keep up with.

Another season is emerging.  But before the season can fully begin, we must discuss the old.  It is with the old that the new life is nurtured and the old released.  

I often think of the things that really matter in our life.  Healthy foods, water, air, soil.  Loving family and friends.  People who mentor us and people we mentor.  There is no order to that.  It is what healthy friends do. Family. They just love.  Life doesn't always go our way.  We have little control over that other than our good deeds to that endeavor.

All we really have is how we treat the earth and to the living things that live there - what we give one another.  Give from your heart.  Over and over. Be kind.  Thoughtful. Patient.  And love because our lives depend on it. Now and forever.

Fall Came Quickly

It's been too long since I last wrote you.  The end of summer often does that.  There is so much to do outside.  Especially in a drought.

I gave up on the flowers. Most are nestled in and the new things I planted in the spring are doing well. It is been one parched summer.  Spring brought a fair amount of rain. Maybe too much.  The rivers and creeks were swollen with water climbing the banks.  Run off is a total waste.

Fall came quickly.  The heat has not lessened too much.  This morning is quite nice.  A gentle breeze which seems to be building. The chimes are sounding and the birds are squawking.  Something is in the air.  Could it be another earthquake?