...where the rain falls oft with the heat of a summer afternoon, and cares drift away on the gulf breeze.
Earlier this week I made a trip from our home in the Texas hill country to the gulf coast near my hometown. I found my heart lift as the land leveled, and I could see for miles in every direction clear to where the bright azure sky meets the earth. The highway is wide and flat and flanked by the last of this year's cotton crop. No curves. No hills. And the legal speed limit is enjoyably increased.
When I was young, I made a trip to the mountains, and I discovered that I suffer from geographical claustrophobia. I enjoyed the beauty, but as snow moved in, an anxiety settled around my heart that I would be stranded, unable to leave. On the return trip home, I felt such a sweet relief of homecoming. I experienced a palpable sensation of anxiety shedding off of me like water poured out on the flat ground; instantly its residue too thin to even be observed soaking into the landscape. I felt that again this week.
And then in my inbox today, I received an email from Etsy with this photo of an artisan's work that I found very beautiful.
shop this artist on Etsy at OnceAgainSam
But I realized that my own amulet would have to look more like this:
Gently rolling hills for me and lush green valleys. We are visiting Colorado/Utah in the autumn so the scenery might be just a little different!
ReplyDeleteI do love green rolling hills. In the area we live now, however, the hills are rocky and brushy. My family loves desert landscapes and temperatures. Me, not so much.
DeleteI'm an islander not a highlander. My husband loves the mountains but I like to look at them from the distance.
ReplyDeleteI love the islander/highlander juxtaposition. Instantly descriptive. :)
Delete