I got up early ….

blue ridge sunrise

Although the Blue Ridge Parkway national parkland adjoins our backyard in Asheville, we need to drive 20 minutes to catch a view like this. (As long as you get up at 5:30 am, that is.)

blue ridge sunrise 2

It is the old-time mountain way to live down and view up.  To leave the mountains be. But things change.

cabin walnut tree in fall s

Only not so much here in our neck of the the Madison County woods, just 35 miles north of the city. Nary a power line has touched these 65 acres of up, and I’m pretty sure they never will.

cabin in the middle of fall

No indoor bathroom. No furnace switch to flip on chilly mornings. No hot running water. No nightly newscast.

cabin in fall

Which suits me fine along about now.

cabin front yard in fall s

About the time we bought this old cabin in 1999, I quit my job as a family therapist. For 15 years, I had the great gift and honor to work with children and parents in every situation you can imagine … or not even imagine. I did the hardest stuff early on … working with court-ordered groups of “offender” parents whose journeys were so painful that I am surprised by little of the horrors that lately rip through our evening broadcasts with malignant regularity. Sometimes all I could do for these damaged and damaging mothers and fathers was to bake them cookies. And hold my babies tight when I came home.

barb and the babies
Annie, Rita, Wes & Me, 1987

This Thanksgiving, the grown-up babies will return from their far-flung homes.

kids 2008
Rita, Wes & Annie, 2008

And we’ll play rowdy games of spoons by the fire.

IMG_5586

And bake pies …. because you know how pie brings people together. And we all could use a little more of that.

Annie bakes a pie

To quote first-born Annie,  “Pie fills a longing for home – or for what you wish home had been.”

A peaceful and homey Thanksgiving to you each.

 

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5 Comments

  1. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your entire family.

  2. HAPPY THANKSGIVING to you, Wayne, and your family!!! All the best with God’s Blessings!

  3. We have done so many Thanksgivings out at our cabin.
    Thanks for the memories.

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