Mountain Laurel

Luna

August 16, 2024

The steep incline of the trail leaves me short of breath. I pull a sassafras leaf and rub it between my fingers. The pungent aroma brings calm and memories to the surface. My grandfather taught me how to identify the sassafras tree. We would walk the woods together in Highland and he pointed out the three distinct leaves. One un-lobed and oval, one bi-lobed, and one three pronged. I loved those walks with him. He taught me how to identify birch trees as well. We would pick delicate younger branches off the birch and strip the bark and then chew…
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June 28th

July 1, 2024

Certain dates arrive on the calendar that I dread. The anniversary of my father’s death – February 8th. August 18th – the date his brain tumor was discovered. June 28th – his date of birth. On June 28th of this year I lay in the old porch swing on the front porch of the farm house in the middle of the Blue Grass Valley. The lawn is covered in brown patches. Very little rain has fallen in over a month. But the hills are a beautiful golden color and the constant breeze undulates the tall grass of the surrounding fields…
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Natural Chimneys

June 27, 2024

Camping in a tent in the upper nineties is not for the faint of heart. In reality anyone with any common sense would not do it, but sometimes a little discomfort leads to something amazing. I bought tickets for the Red Wing Roots festival in February. The haze of the cold of winter and the short days of sunlight led me on a search for summer activities with little thought of the potential pitfalls. I carefully watched the forecast as the date approached. “Should we just post our tickets for sale?” “Maybe.” “Are we too old for this?” “Maybe.” “98…
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Meditations on Grief – Part 2

June 17, 2024

What has the loss of both my parents really meant to me? Well truly what is most meaningful for me was being there for them. I for the first time experienced in my adult life a world without a focus on a high stress job, but instead an intense focus on what is truly important. Love. Kindness. Not money. Not career. But taking care of those who took care of me. I can say there was a great deal of happiness even in the shadow of death. I walked twice a day. I sat with my mom at the table and…
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Sundog

June 12, 2024

I celebrated my 46th birthday in Monterey, California. To be surrounded by family was a such a treat. Ben’s parents, his brother and wife, as well as my brother and his partner, and my nephew all sang me happy birthday. Willie the dog was there too. My mother-in-law baked a delicious and incredibly time consuming to make browned butter pecan cake. It was a wonderful day. I even rode a roller coaster at the Santa Cruz boardwalk with my nephew and brother. I cannot help but mention that I deeply missed my parents. My dad always had a bouquet of…
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Every Moment is a Miracle

June 4, 2024

How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick, Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself, In the mystical moist night air, and from time to time, Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars. – Walt Whitman My AP English teacher gave me Leaves of Grass as a gift when I was sixteen. She inscribed in it “You, of all the others in class, will get this Whitman. He so easily finds beauty in things – as I feel you always do in your writing.” Those words meant so much to me – they still do. Thinking…
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Meditations on Grief – Part 1

May 16, 2024

My father shared his love of the Appalachian mountains and all the beauty of the natural world surrounding us constantly. He said we lived in the most beautiful place in the world. As a young adult he and I would drive the mountain roads together and gather morel mushrooms, we picked water lettuce, and he shared stories of the mountain men and women who lived in the home places we passed that fell in disrepair years before. He taught me to how to identify sassafras and wild ginseng. We would squeal in happiness when the trillium and mountain laurel bloomed.…
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Same Trail – New Growth

May 8, 2024

My husband and I walk the trails in our woods often. They are smoothed by our footsteps and the rain. Last night I wasn’t feeling like making the trek. I was tired, but happy from volunteering at the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank. I felt extremely overwhelmed by the number of emails and requests that had piled up from co-workers while I was out adding two cans of corn to 900 boxes in a long assembly line of volunteers who added corn flakes, fruit cocktail, grits, and other foods to each box. Ben encouraged me to go in his oh…
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Mirror Woman

May 6, 2024

I am nearing the end of Knife by Salman Rushdie. There is a passage in the book that continues to return to my thoughts. It captures the moment when Rushdie determines that it is time for him to look at the man in the mirror “mirror man”. He peers at the deep gashes crossing his face and neck as well as his right eye lid tightly sewn shut. He touches the mirror in front of him and pushes through to the other side and an interesting series of memories burst forward. Dearest mirror woman.Who do I see?What world exists behind…
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Valley of Love

May 3, 2024

I wrote this poem after visiting with close friends in the mountains of Highland County (where I was born). We drove along ice covered roads to a valley where magic and mystery is forever present. It is the setting where my parents first met…a tributary of the river called Laurel Fork where my husband and I fell in love. New Year’s DayLove at times reaches a depth unfathomable Like a wind chill whipped on a January daySharp and numbing.Like a golden light spilling upona frozen edged spring weavingThrough the valley.Crisp and unspoken.MagnifyingThe beauty thatIs.
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Luna

June 28th

Natural Chimneys

Meditations on Grief – Part 2

Sundog

Every Moment is a Miracle

Meditations on Grief – Part 1

Same Trail – New Growth

Mirror Woman

Valley of Love