Blogging from the Mountain

Saying Goodbye to Wildacres

I have heard so many good things about this place and I can see why.
It is only just now that the fog has lifted so that I can see the mountains (or see ten feet in front of me for that matter). But it doesn't bother me---I am very familiar with the mountains, and I actually like the way the fog curls off of them. But the sun is shining and I've gone for a few short hikes, so it's been good.

In addition to getting a lot of work done, and meeting some of the way cool people here at Wildacres (Mike, Kathy, Chris, Dana, Brian, and of course, Keeva the poodle caboodle). Here are some of the things I have learned:

• I am usually not comfortable with quiet. I even have to have a noise machine to help me sleep. While the quiet at first intimidated me, I realized it was not quiet--it was just different music. The hum of crickets, woodpeckers, and one really, really, teed off squirrel were a wonderful symphony. Are these things around us all the time and we're just too busy to hear them? Things that make you go hmmmmm....
• I have lived alone for a long time, so I didn't view being in a cabin in the woods with any apprehension. However, there is something exhilarating about being totally, totally alone. We find it intimidating because we are never alone. Even if we live by ourselves, there's always the neighbor down the street or the days full of work that we welcome what we think is being by ourselves. You get to know yourself a lot better (okay, that sounded dirty, but I didn't mean it to). It has really helped me hear God better.
• It's okay if the interior of your cabin looks like the room Johnny Depp had in "Secret Window." As long as you don't start writing "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy..." you're okay.
• Scripture has power when it is read aloud. I've read the Psalms but never aloud when I was by myself. Truly power in the word of God read ALOUD. Maybe it was my imagination, but when I read it on my porch this morning, all the birds and critters started chattering more enthusiastically.
• Small, black, ringneck snakes look a lot like cell phone charger cords.
  
• Lightning storms can be thrilling. Don't worry, the cabin will protect you. Enjoy the light and flashing without fear. That loud popping and fizzing was just the transformer.
  
• Wild turkeys are everywhere. Sometimes unexpectedly, when you go around the corner.
• The food here is really good (okay, that wasn't a lesson, just a point)
• We get so obsessed with where God wants us to be that we fail to realize if we walk with Him, the place we need to be will natural cross our path.
• I have been extremely humbled by reading about all the adventures of the other artists who have lived here. There are three journals that we are invited to contribute to, and I have read about artists who have battled breast cancer, searched for family history, came from as far away as Texas and New York. It is very humbling to know you are one in a long chain of Owl's Nest (that's what they call the cabin) who have loved this place.
• For some reason, day 5 here is always magical. I was fairly pleased with my progress, but for some reason on Day 5 it was like lightning coming off my fingers, and I was so wired that at 1:30 a.m. I finally had to take an Ambien to help me sleep. I've found similar things in the journals, and it always seems to happen around day 5.