A return from Solitude......

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms.” 
― Henry David Thoreau, Walden: Or, Life in the Woods

For the regular readers, many of you may realize that I've not posted in a few days...

a rarity for this radical rambler.  

 I've been away ...well Big Daddy and I took off for a few days to a little "love shack" located at the foot of the Smokey Mountains.

We left the city...

left the kids...

left the crazy life..

and

headed out of town with a few changes of clothes,

our hiking boots,

and a full tank of gas.

Many of you may remember our "vacation from hell" about the time we rented a cabin which led to my post "preacher gone wild"......After writing a letter to the owner of the cabins and campground, we were given two free nights at any of the Jelly stone campgrounds in the US.  So we loaded up the car and we were off for our free

Sexy Hot mama/Big Daddy adventure.

We stopped at Kroger just before we entered the woods and bought some cheese, crackers, coffee creamer, milk, bread and lunch lunch meats. 

We drove....leaving the main drag with all its' roadside stores full of trinkets.

We drove along windy roads, past old barns that were falling down,

saw little white churches dotted by ancient graves.

We passed tractors and horses and fields of freshly rolled hay.

And we drove up and through breath taking

mountains dotted with brilliant autumn colors.

We arrived at the cabin.  It was small but clean and quite adequate for what Big Daddy and I had planned.  It had a rock fire pit right off the porch which then dropped off into a rolling mountain stream.  We were able to sit on the front porch, listen to the rush of water and the crackle of fire and feel the rumble of life settle and the marrow of our bones

quiet.  Big Daddy showed me that he was the number one fire starter in the south.

It was a wonderful get away.

Good food,

quiet space,

long naps,

hot sex,

and

long meditative walks through paths less traveled along side cool mountain streams.

Today,

we returned to the real world....

the house was still standing,

all three dogs still alive and

the children had not killed each other.

We went into the woods for a few days,

let the stillness of the world settle over us,

walked under colored sky,

through smokey air and mountain stream,

During one of our hikes, Big Daddy looked at me and said..

"makes one realize how small we are in this big world, doesn't it?"

I've thought alot about that statement....

we are small...

but yet

the ordinariness of our regular life

is most often extraordinary and full of joy......

 one speck,

one tiny little dot on planet earth...

but

a joyful, peace filled dot of deep love.

We went into the woods,

hiked up the mountain

.....

and

life...

life is good.

Happy Sunday to all of you....

the rambler is back.

blessings

and hugs.