Last week I was truly "along the path," driving to the Great Smoky Mountains and back in the space of 10 days. Alone with my thoughts, Enlighten channel on XMRadio, and God, I decided that I would begin this blog. I thought about friends past and present, the way that God always seems to send exactly what we need precisely when it is needed, and about growing older.
There was so much possibility for tragedy and dismay along that path...Dad with advanced Alzheimers, Mom overwhelmed with her new realization that this was, undeniably, Dad's unrelenting state, and me, the one who was always the family trouble-maker and opinion-giver traveling to be a comfort and aide. So many possibilities for it to all go wrong.
But, in the mountains, it was just beginning to be fall, a time that has always offered me comfort and solace. The sumacs had just turned their brilliant scarlet when I arrived, and after a couple of days the sycamores began turning yellow, and nature progressed according to its well-designed pattern.
Mom, Auntie, and I had time to visit, to reminisce, to reach out to each other, to share horrible and terrible family secrets in a way that defied the total lack of intimacy previously found within our family circle. And, we came to realize that our lives, too, were following a well-designed pattern, from birth through triumph and tragedy, to new life. So much to take in, so much emotion released in a quiet and thoughtful manner, we avoided our well-worn family paths of blame, recrimination, anger and denial for once, and forged new strengths among ourselves.
