One Fine Day

Perseus tumbled rapidly down the hill, rolling past weeds, stumps, pottery shards and the rest of us. We were galloping down my hill after hoofing it up in a mere 23 minutes. Lochlan moaned all the way up because he could, but once we got to the top, we just sat and took it all in. Even Lochlan was mesmerized. The beauty in that place takes your breath away, and not just from the steep climb to get there. :-) 

Lochlan carried Perseus, his bad piggies (round) stuffed toy all the way up, and I believe it was for the express purpose of tossing it on our way down to watch it roll past us. His mission was a success! He had to pick up and re-toss it only once and it still managed to beat us to the bottom, even though we galloped all the way down! 

It is so neat to see Lochlan finding joy, even as we push him and encourage him through the difficult things (hiking up). When we tell him we're going for a hike, he grabs his shoes with a smile on his face, even grabs a shirt (what?!) and gets to the car without any prompting. He might moan a fair bit on the way up, but once we reach our destination he's all in. He sat in my lap at the top and watched our mountain with the storm clouds rolling in. This place may try to kill us on occasion, but it is good for our hearts and our souls. The mountains are full of life and ever-changing, life giving to so much/many, sometimes under the strain of fire and/or flooding, sometimes barraged by violent storms, but ever remaining; a constant reminder to us of our place in this world. 

Kelton woke me up at 4:50 this morning: "Mama, please come watch the sunrise with me." I desperately wanted to stay curled up underneath the warm covers, but some moments in life will not be found again. So, I put on a jacket, hat, gloves, grabbed a fuzzy blanket and we hunkered down with a cup of tea into our hammock chairs and waited for the sunrise, while listening to Enya. Kelton reached over and grabbed my hand as the sun peaked over the hills and said, "Mama, I will remember this always." Me too, little buddy. Always.