Blue Ridge Country May/June 2024 - 7
years before and had died of smallpox at the age of four.
To teach me the lessons of a world bigger than your
eyes tell you, Grandma took my first hula hoop, which
honestly I never mastered for its intended purpose, and
threw it into the yard. Where it landed it stayed until
I thoroughly examined everything that was within the
hoop's circle. Entire worlds of activity were happening
right under my nose and toes, and I never knew. Ants
putting up food for hard times, beetles looking for water,
mole holes, animal tracks, tiny plants, petite flowers, so
much activity that I never saw. They didn't know about
my world and I didn't know about theirs, but both existed.
Both were real. Both were everything to their inhabitants.
That hula hoop opened my eyes to how wonderful
and magical the world can be.
If I never noticed that world, what else was I missing?
The middle of our lives is spent on a treadmill of
to-do lists and activities. We are so important that we
over-busy ourselves until we're about to drop. Why is
that period of our life so frenetic? Why are we afraid
to stop and smell the roses? I certainly can't figure out
why being busy is important to us as if being busy is a
virtue. Maybe because we no longer get report cards
to tell us how we're doing, we lean into productivity as
our standard. How many completed tasks does it take
to earn an A+? Are we grading on a curve? Am I on
the honor roll yet?
The elderly and the very young are close to the
source, close to that from which they came. The new
to life and the end of life have ties to a world of wonder
that we just can't experience. They can see and
hear things we can't. Grandma said those people were
" down to their sheers. " It means that the heavy curtains
between worlds were drawn back and there was just a
set of sheer curtains between for those people. That
sounds exciting to me.
We need the weight of responsible adulthood lifted
from us to participate. You can do that by refusing to
participate, which is very hard, or aging into that quiet
place where you can see all the miracles happening
around you. My grandmother taught me to welcome
the strange and different, to appreciate it. I will always
choose to live a life with the possibility of magic, of
kindly animal visitors, of happy ghost playmates, rather
than whatever adult life is as defined by current societal
standards.
I will always stop and talk to dragonflies, cardinals,
cats, dogs and ravens. I will try to recognize little miracles
in my life. I look forward to the days when I can
have conversations with long lost friends and family
again. Just bring me a pot of tea and multiple mugs.
I'm throwing a party over here.
Calling
view gazers
and trailblazers
Plan Your Next Getaway
at Gatlinburg.com
MAY/JUNE 2024 7
http://www.Gatlinburg.com
Blue Ridge Country May/June 2024
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Blue Ridge Country May/June 2024
Blue Ridge Country May/June 2024 - Cover1
Blue Ridge Country May/June 2024 - Cover2
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Blue Ridge Country May/June 2024 - Cover3
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