Longing
This entry was posted on 5/21/2010 7:02 PM and is filed under uncategorized.
I feel such a longing for Jocassee tonight. Perhaps it's the time of year, near summer when we always headed up to the valley. More than likely, it's because I am reading a delightfully touching book by Philip Lee Williams entitled "In the Morning: Reflections From First Light." I was soaking in a hot tub a few minutes ago reading his book. He lives in the mountains of North Georgia and was describing a magnificent 12-point buck he studied for minutes before it fled. He said he cried as he gazed at the buck, and as I read that he cried, I cried. He tells of the Whippoorwill and the fact that he's never seen one. I have, but oddly enough not at Jocassee but right in my own backyard. Our house still has some woods left in the subdivision - at least it will until the final 9 lots are sold. They cut down trees, and I plant them in my backyard, an effort to block out all evidence of nearby neighbors. The Whippoorwill was calling and calling one night. I had never heard one in Columbia. Dave said that it's fitting that one should live near my house. It was dusk - too dark to really see in the trees without a flashlight, but light enough to see where I stepped. I followed the call until I was right underneath the Whippoorwill's call. As I shined the flashlight into the tree, the bird took off and soared away. To be such an ugly bird, it's so graceful. I have seen a Whippoorwill. Me! I saw an elusive Whippoorwill!
It's this time of night that we sat on the front porch of the Lodge and rocked - and rocked - and rocked. We could hear the rush of the river, the croaking of the bullfrogs, the shuffling of our feet on the wooden porch as we rocked. It was peacefully noisy. Our family connected on that porch. We talked for hours. I rarely see them anymore. We lost our gathering place when we lost Jocassee. I long to own my own place up there before I die - a place to take my grandchildren and let them feel the shivering water and hear the sounds and eat icy cold watermelon right out of the spring. I want the girls to have a pretend castle on a mountain, like I did. I want a place to regroup and rekindle. Hmmm . . . all this feeling coming from reading a few chapters in someone else's book.
Get the book. You have to.
