Goodbyes, Blessings, & Takeaways-slice # 3

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Today is March 3rd, the Slice of Life Writing Challenge on the Two Writing Teachers Blog of Ruth Ayres and Stacey Shubitz.  Thanks Ruth and Stacey

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               Yesterday I closed the sale on my cabin in the mountains.  The family who is purchasing is going to love it as we did.  They have a little girl and they’re so excited to do things with it, around it, and to it—just as we felt so many years ago.  

               We have owned this cabin as a leasehold with the government with 5 other cabins in our group in a national forest in Colorado.  The original owner was a forest ranger who spent two summers with his boys building it. We bought it when our children were small, and the owner was older (like us now) and the children were grown and couldn’t use it any more (like us now).  Although this sweet place isn’t staying in the ‘family’, it seems to find owners who will care for it and love being there, in the middle of a forest, with no electricity, no running water, just the woods, the meadow, paths made by deer and other animals, and a stream.  



                  I have traveled quite a bit with family and with my students.  When my class traveled, I often used the question, "What will you take from this journey?"  The question is meaningful for them, like a "memory souvenir".  We often wrote our answers during the final closing of our trips.

                Here is what I will take from our cabin:

·      A journal that was signed with a note or two from all the guests that came to stay

·      The smell of the pines

·      The hummingbirds that flew by windows to peek in

·      The old cot where naps were taken, right beside a window with a view of the meadow

·      The hum of the summer insects when the wildflowers were in full bloom

·      Softball games in the meadow

·      Climbing huge boulders up the road when the kids were little, their kind of ‘mountain climbing’

·      Sneaking quietly into one part of our land that was swampy, and watching small fish and lizards play

·      Naming some of the big rocks around us-Reading Rock was one; a depression in the top, just right for a small body, a pillow and a book

·      The wind soughing through the trees

·      Rain on the roof every afternoon

·      Reading by lamplight in the evening with a cup of tea  

·      Hearing the mice scurry to find crumbs at night (they really did come and never bothered us at all)

·      Playing card games by candlelight (we had a real candle-abra hanging over the kitchen table)

·      Of course, wiener roasts and making s’mores at the fire ring outside

·      The kids trying to dam up the stream (it’s quite small) and thinking they might make a swimming pool if only they could make the dam stay

·      Going to the outhouse late at night with a candle, and looking up at the stars-nothing better!

·      Sitting by the dying campfire telling stories, wrapped in blankets, kids falling asleep

·      Being very sure that our children loved nature in all its persnickety ways

              Finding the cabin a long while ago was a blessing, and now this family is blessed, too.  They thanked me for selling the cabin to them!