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Hello, beautiful people! It’s been a minute…
After a month working at a B&B in the foothills of the French Alps, I have learned loads of interesting, practical tidbits, including how to: make hospital corners, thaw a water pump, paint a kitchen, serve an apéritif, clean a toilet, take care of a grumpy donkey, make a Biddy, and say ‘bless you’ in Danish. I’ve also made lots of fond memories and life-long friends.
Have you ever heard
The siren call
Of
The Mountains?
Have you ever
Answered?
Trekking across oceans, an entire continent,
Searching out peaks and valleys
Suddenly finding yourself
In a beautiful place?
Have you ever found yourself
In the midst of an improbable spring
When there should’ve been snow?
Have you ever found yourself
Struggling down a snowy slope
Bearing two sloshing buckets of water
To an invitingly warm barn?
Have you ever found yourself
Weathering the thunder and lightning
Of a storm inside a home?
Have you ever found yourself
Staring into the endless nights sky
Watching countless shooting stars
Unable to think of anything more to wish for?
Have you ever found yourself?
Have you ever watched the sun peek over the mountaintops
And thought of the beauty of the Universe?
Or sat in a wooden kitchen
Listening to the babble of French voices
And thought of the really important things?
(Don’t Take Plates Away Before Cheese!)
Have you ever exchanged ideas with a near stranger
In the cab of a camion
And emerged at the end of the day
No longer strangers?
Have you ever watched a stallion
Gallop down the rocks and grassy slope
Straight towards you, whinnying in recognition
And had to stop,
Heart in your mouth,
Hay in your arms,
Awe in your eyes?
Have you ever been a Jedi, a deer, a cowboy, a secret agent, and a zookeeper – all in one day?
Have you ever had to freeze in the midst of washing dishes
Praying for one of the clients at the table to resume the conversation?
Have you ever watched an irate donkey
Explore a peace-offering in the form of an apple?
Or watched the full moon cast shadows and reflect off the snowy night?
Or woken up in the middle of the night in a panic –
Water heater!
Or enjoyed a Rikita with the woodstove crackling and the wind howling?
Or made yourself scarce as tempers flare?
Or joked with guests in French?
Or drunk copious amounts amounts of tea, barefoot,
Mountains spreading out below?
Have you ever met other people
Who, unknowingly perhaps, taught you something
About yourself,
About humanity?
Have you ever sat in the highest point you could find,
The scent of cows in the air,
The Alps in the distance,
Feeling a profound connection
To this heartbreakingly beautiful world?
Have you ever heard
The siren call
Of
The Mountains,
And sung along?
xoxo,
Susan