I even turned the radio off and just thought...and then did not think....for many hours, witnessing the beautiful mountain landscape that was pixelated with the most extraordinary autumn colors illuminated by the gray skies as the backdrop. Harlan and I meandered down the road, stopping every once in awhile to take it all in. I had almost forgotten about my favorite time of year, was letting those moments pass me by, and recognized I had not been living in the present.
The drive was stunning, but time with family, for me, really helps me stay grounded. I mean, Sara and I have known each other since Day 1 and know each other often better than we know ourselves.
Between a few hikes through through "Gorges" Ithaca, some great homemade food (yes, of course, pumpkin was involved), a taste of local brews and local food, I felt re-energized and reconnected. This is what I needed to sustain me for now. A walk in the woods. A lot of laughs. Shared meals. The beauty of nature. I wish I had taken a picture of the twin deer(s)** that always hang with their fam in Sara's front yard. There's such peace in witnessing life, taking a moment to listen, and truly feeling in tune with yourself and everything around you.
With that, here's a nice poem I always return to:
THE PEACE OF WILD THINGS
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
— Wendell Berry
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| Bel Canto Farm |
Peace,
Michelle
*No these guys were not in my car singing to me (I wish!)....picture from an Alpaca farm near Ithaca.
** Inside joke for Sara.
