"Thanks for Tears by now Forgotten . . . Thanks for Peace Within my Soul"
We had a gorgeous sunset tonight in Cornelia, GA. It reminded me so much of the one in this picture that we experienced some time ago up on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Sunset is my favorite time of day, especially in the winter time. Cold weather, for whatever reasons, brings the most glorious of sunsets!!
The mountains are always calling to me, sometimes more loudly and more insistently than others, and I just have to go up - - - higher and higher until there's no higher to go. I find the greatest peace of mind and soul in the mountains. In the quiet peace of gathering night, with all of the colors - so vivid for such a short time as the sun sets - and the first stars of the evening, I find my strength and a deep sense of calm and kinship with all of creation. For however long I am able to be there, it seems that the world and all of the cares it contains are both very far away and completely insignificant. I am so thankful for such a place to go and be. I'm thankful for the sense of kinship, and the calm, and the peace of mind. It makes me feel very blessed.
I don't know when it was that the mountains became so important in my life. I was always a beach person. I suppose it's Terry's roots in the mountains of North Carolina, and the love of being there that he shared with me some years back. As we served appointments in north Georgia and were close enough to get onto the Parkway easily, I fell more and more and more in love with their majesty and beauty. I'm now a convert. *smile*
I experience much the same feeling when I'm fortunate enough to be on the Georgia coast on Jekyll Island . . . sunrise on the beach when no one is around but the birds and the ocean and me . . .. it's that sense of knowing there is something that stays the same even as it's a different place every day. In addition, it's a feeling of being where something is so much bigger than I am - the ocean, a mountain peak . . . it feels solid and that's comforting to me in a world that is changing too fast and leaving me behind. The top of Mt. Mitchell, some 6800 or 6900 feet above sea level, is the highest point in the eastern United States. Standing up there gives me a feeling of safety that I get nowhere else . . . as if only God, Himself, can find me unless I want to be found, and a feeling of safety like nowhere else.
I'm thankful . . . for so many things . . . today, in particular, for inner peace and for peace of mind when it comes, for however long it stays.
Later . . . and, thanks for reading.
What a gift you have to know how and where you can find inner peace! It's also interesting to note the reasons why those places bring that feeling to you. You know ... I must admit I'm not sure I've ever truly had or felt inner peace. I've heard others talk about it -- and you refer to it here, but not sure I really know from my heart what it truly feels like. I wonder if it's more of an ability -- maybe even a choice (somehow?) -- to let go to that -- despite the turmoils of life. Mountains and beaches have to be good ways of getting there! In my life ... when there's angst -- angst wins *g*!
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