Peacefulness

One Of Those Questions

I’ve never been very good at giving the one word answer or the ‘in a single sentence describe the..”  I tend to be a little wordy.  My wife Holly will laugh when she reads the last sentence and think to herself (or say out loud), “A little?!?”.  Often when I’m asked an important or provocative question, rather than take a thoughtful pause, I usually start talking to fill the space while my mind is thinking and formulating the right answer.  The succinct and meaningful answer.  The answer I wish I had  given after a moment or two of silence while I thought it out rather than vamping on gibberish until I “got there”.

Seven years ago shortly after we had moved to the mountains we had dinner at a friends home.  After a wonderful meal we were enjoying after dinner banter when Jenny, our host, asked a great question.  A provocative question.  One of “those” questions.  Jenny who has lived in the mountains much longer than Holly and I asked us:  “So what do you like most about living in the mountains?”

“So what do you like most about living in the mountains?”

So there it was.  Jenny asked one of those questions.  My brain started going where I make lists, prioritize the list, organize the list into categories, rationalize the motivation for the items on the list, and then put the list into a spreadsheet for the beginning of an executional plan.  Yikes – I was doing it!  But this was a great question and in my head I could almost hear the ringside announcer saying, “Let the rambling begin….”.

I went on to describe the people, the slower pace of life, the laid back vibe, the blah blah blabadee blah blah blah.

Peacefulness

I woke up the next morning thinking about this question and the answer was perfectly clear:  peacefulness.  That’s what I like most about living in the mountains.  The peacefulness of being in the middle of a piece of our planet that Mother Nature has shown great favor to.  A  habitat shared (mostly) peacefully by man, beast, and plants.  The peacefulness of the fresh air.  The peacefulness of the sound of the wind blown pine trees.  The walks with dogs in the middle of a dirt or gravel road.  The peacefulness of night.  The sunlight filtered through the pines and oaks sneaking into my bedroom at first light.  

The peacefulness of a sustained stare with a black tail buck outside my kitchen patio.  The peacefulness of waking up to a frozen world after a night of snow.  The peacefulness of walking out on a cold morning, closing my eyes, and taking a deep breath.  The peacefulness of sitting under the summer stars with my bride of 40 years with our two Golden Retrievers, all three whom I love desperately.

So yeah, peacefulness.  That’s what I like most about living in the mountains.  It’s the peacefulness that fortifies my romantic perspective of life at 3100 feet.