A Letter to You From My North Carolina Visit...

Snow has a way of changing everything.  A storm blew in the other night and I’ve been housebound with my sister and her husband for three days now.

There’s something magical seeing the bare limbs of trees wearing twelve inches of fluffy white frosting. We are perched on a mountaintop in western North Carolina, with treetops and the Blue Ridge Mountain as our view.  The gravel road up to the house is a mile of twisty steep turns, which makes the arrival to the house an accomplishment worth the drive. 

A tow truck is on its way to save our car that has slid off the side of the driveway. The deep snow was too much for even a four-wheel drive vehicle.   We have resigned ourselves to the fact no transportation means not going out anywhere.  We are a culture of going and coming as we please.  We are planted here for the time being.  It’s an odd feeling.

We are settling in, the fireplace warming the great room, and soft music from CD’s in the player fills us with a quiet peace.  There’s no Internet or TV here, a chance to unplug from what traps us at home. 

Life is full of making the best of situations we can’t control; unexpected snowstorms, our children leaving home to find their own way, aging parents, or job endings, are circumstances we have no power to direct.  The best solution is to change our thinking, our plans and let go of the things that we are powerless to order.

There is such commanding beauty in a snowstorm.  I’m going to remember how this week turned out, just as it was supposed to, not as I planned it to be, and that’s the better way.

Yay.  The car was rescued, but I think we’ll still stay in!

~Janet