My Country Life

Melvin in Thanksgiving Scarf November 22, 2013 December 21 will mark the first anniversary of my move to the cabin. It seems to have flown and dragged, all at the same time. When I look back, it seems like just a flash, but when I was actually living it, time certainly did not always seem to zip by. This past year or so, from the time I was laid off in mid-2012 to now, has been a soulful mix of joy and loss, loneliness and blissful solitude, and some serious fear that occasionally turned to courage. Life presents us with challenges, and we get to see what we are made of. Last September (2012) I began a daily practice of gratitude; it helped me stay in the moment and not worry about the future. Soon I started using my iPhone to capture these moments of beauty. I posted some of my gratitude photos to Instagram and shared a few favorites here on this blog. It's fun to look back through those snapshots in gratitude. When I noticed they always left me smiling, I decided to compil...

White Oak It’s a beautiful fall morning here at the cabin. Cold, clear with a little wind and perpetual leaf drop. The tulip poplars, sweet gums, maples, dogwoods, cherries and most of the hickories are bare. A variety of oaks, elms and beech trees provide the late season color. The white oak is the predominant tree here, and it’s in peak color right now—a striking burnt orange canopy. The water oaks are golden and dropping leaves fast. The southern red oaks and the post oaks have just a few crinkly brown leaves remaining and will soon join the ranks of winter. The elms and beech trees are covered in yellow, and I can still see a hint of green in their foliage. Interestingly, the beech leaves won’t drop until next spring; they will turn a light tan and remain attached all winter until bud-break. I can’t see the sour woods from where I sit. Maybe I’ll pay them a visit on my walk this morning and savor these last days of fall.

Yellow Hibiscus at Jekyll Island last week. Learning to appreciate and write poetry at 50-plus is proving to be a fun challenge. I shared my poem to a deceased person (this week’s assignment) with the class last night. You can read it here . I like my poem, and the lady next to me told me she loved it and talked about her own father; I could tell she was sincere. (My siblings all said they liked it, but hey, what else can they say?) The teacher thought it was too straight forward and she didn’t like the ending. She didn’t like that Daddy was sitting in a recliner watching television in the end and actually suggested that I change it to something "more interesting." I think she meant something more worthwhile.  “Well, it is about my dad. We didn’t sit around reading poetry and playing the violin. He worked hard in a blue collar job all week, all his life, and he liked to sit in his recliner on Saturday afternoon sometimes. It’s a fond memory for me,” I replied, with att...

Daddy 1979 The latest assignment for my poetry class is to write a poem to a deceased person. Here's my poem to my father who passed away on June 2, 1998. I'll be sharing it in class tomorrow night.

I enjoyed my first fire of the season yesterday after returning home from a week at Jekyll Island. Cold weather arrived while I was away so the cabin was chilled to the bone. The seasoned cherry from last winter and the pond pine that Jack brought me made for easy fire-starting. Later I added some of the new "green" wood that I recently cut to create a slow-burning fire that lasted through the night.

I'm enrolled in a poetry workshop at Emory this fall. This is the first time I've given poetry any serious consideration. I'll be reading lots of poetry and writing some too. The first class was last Tuesday, and my first assignment is to write a narrative poem to share with the class this week. Following is the poem that I wrote.

Wildflower down by the creek. Looking for the good in every day is something I try to practice. I'm always happier when I take time to notice what I have sometimes called the "happy grateful bits," the sweet little things that happen around us all the time, the things that we tend to overlook in favor of all the things that irritate us or cause us to worry. You know, things like traffic, weather we don't like, the job we do or don't have, how much money we have in the bank, people who bug us, etc. But I've learned that whatever I give my attention to expands, so I choose to give my attention to the good stuff. Here are today's happy grateful bits.