This is a participating post of Let's Blog Off.
Today's topic:
"If you could stop the world for one day, what would you take the time to do?"
Hmm. I seriously struggled with this one. There are so many things I want to do - go to Europe, write at least one book, go to Hawaii (again...but I was 2 last time, so it doesn't count) or the Caribbean, go to the Louvre, hike to several more summits, try scuba diving, go to Alaska, do this, do that. You get the idea.
But the one thing that I would do, right now, today, if the Earth held still for me?
I would go home. I would go back to Vermont.
I would drive over the dirt roads that wind me through the mountains toward Halifax. And when I got there, I would lay down in the woods and wonder at the world. Feel the dead leaves beneath my bones, the damp moss against my skin. I would go down to the brook that trickles through the culvert beneath the driveway. I would slide my toes into the freezing water that always runs clear despite emanating from marsh. I would be careful not to trip on the barbed wire that threads itself out from beneath the bark of trees as if it were a blackberry briar sprung from pine. These threads running out to form corners in the middle of nowhere - to mark property lines that no one bothers to trouble over anymore. After all, do the neighbors care if I infringe upon their forest? I am not laying waste to the beauty that they can not take credit for anyway. No, they will not care. This is the woods. No one can truly claim them. This is my home. No one can say they sprung from these springs or grew from this growth in the way that I did. If I had only one day, I would go back.
(Actually, I hear this is a little closer to what it really looks like right now.)
To read what others would do on this self-fated day:
I want to go to Vermont too ...
ReplyDeleteOne day I will make it there and I know of a few people who I will schedule a visit with and I know they will greet me with a smile and a beverage.
You must be referring to dear ol' Rich...he'll bring you one at the state border, then escort you to the pub for the reaaally good stuff.
ReplyDeleteDepending on how long it has been since you have been there, you may well find out that Thomas Wolfe's famous dictum, you can't go home again, is true. A few years ago my younger brother and I went to Helena, Montana where we grew up in the 1950s. I had not seen it since 1970, and just about everything had changed, including the hills where we used to go hiking as kids! The city of Helena decided that the abandoned mines were a danger and closed them all in!!!!!!!!!!! And the pond where we used to camp out is now privately owned, divided into parcels, and fenced off. It's still a gorgeous, gorgeous city, but it is nothing like what it once was.
ReplyDelete@Joseph - Oh no! How sad to have it all portioned and closed away! Perhaps it's too early to say, but I have a feeling that Halifax, VT won't be very much changed even in the next several decades. It's in the middle of nowhere, the population is continuing to dwindle as the younger generation (myself included) moves away, etc, etc. Essentially, there's no reason in the future for any of it to be modified or further developed. The populace isn't growing, there's no local industry...
ReplyDeleteI love the voice that you struck in this piece, Chamois; I imagine the fact that it has an ache to it is because that's the real, raw emotion behind your feelings, but it also had a deep grace and beauty to it. Some of the phrases struck me as so poetic: "Feel the dead leaves beneath my bones, the damp moss against my skin" and "the barbed wire that threads itself out from beneath the bark of trees as if it were a blackberry briar sprung from pine." I felt I could smell the pungent earth and the sweet scents of the foliage. Thanks for taking me there! I've missed Vermont since I left VC in Montpelier. It's a state I know I will always go back to if just for bits of time but having grown up there, you have so much more intimate knowledge of it. I have a feeling that will come out in your writing from time to time.
ReplyDeleteSaxon, thank you so much for commenting! Yes, Vermont is very dear to me - especially now that I'm on the border in Texas. The lush greenery and forests and MUD (I don't think I can put into words how much I actually miss MUD!)...there is nothing like it here. It's a place I'll never be able to find again, that's for sure - it inspired my poetry portfolio that I've just handed in earlier this week. Maybe I'll post a few of those in the near future. :)
ReplyDeleteI hope you will post them and let me know when you do. I can't wait to see what you've created! I'm an avid gardener when I'm not surrounded by concrete as I am in NYC (especially herbs and perennials) so I get your love of mud! I'm sure it's even more dynamic in VT given there is an entire season named after it! I was only in Montpelier in early April and mid October so I missed the muck. Having snow showers in the spring (Tennessee girl always hoping for a coating of the white stuff) and the glorious leaves in the fall were enough to make me fall in love with the state (not to mention the Mexican restaurant with great margaritas and pool tables in downtown Montpelier)! Word to the wise: play pool before the margaritas kick in!
ReplyDeleteDuly noted! (on the pool/margaritas...though I doubt my aim will improve either way!)
ReplyDelete