November 1

I lock the door on one more year at the mountain house, to
friends and family that are in the Carolinas and Tennessee.
I close out Autumn as it is at that altitude in the Smokys.
I caravan to temps more like early summer as it is in Florida.
Closing up is a heart hard thing for me to do. Each year
seems to take its toll on me. I am never ready. Snook says
it’s because I am a mountain woman and it will never feel right.

When I open my door in Florida I am greeted with newness
on all the old things I left behind many months ago. I am
struck by how beautiful my home here is, close to ocean
and surrounded by friends and family. Autumn here is more
like early summer and I know it will get better as we head
into winter which seems like months of fall minus the show
of color and grandeur of mountain scape. I am always surprised
how much I love getting home to Florida after having such
a taffy pull of emotions before I come back. I feel wrenched
free of one beauty but I embrace another. Beaches and the ocean
beckon me and the holidays are coming. More reasons to rejoice.
Come June I know I will wrench myself away from here to head
for the mountains. I will look forward to the cool summer
there but only after I am there. I'll have to say good-bye
to palm trees and family, friends and activities that I love.

I am a fickle one, dreading the closing of each door,
feeling my heart being pulled and stretched as I do,
loving the opening of the other and rejoicing in the new
of this place, or that.