Vacation

Sapphire, NC

Vacation is a wonderful thing. So good to get away from the drudge of everyday life.

I am a creature of habit, and I get more so as I get older. I’m not comfortable with change. It’s difficult for me. It makes me pay attention. I’d rather not pay attention. I’d rather be on auto pilot and just space out most of the time. That is not the Buddhist way. Maybe that’s why I’m attracted to Buddhism. It challenges me.

Going on vacation forces me to pay attention. The environment is different, sounds, smells, colors, air quality, light, foods, everything is different than what I am accustomed to. It breaks through my glazed over awareness and demands my attention. It screams at me to notice, notice or fall off the mountain.

The house we are staying in is quite beautiful and comfortable. It’s spacious, bright, deep set into the mountains of western NC, and engulfed with Autumn foliage colors. The weather is mid 60's by day and mid 40's by night. Last night we had a fire in the fireplace. It was lovely.

I celebrated my 54th birthday here on Saturday. It was very pleasant. Good friends, pizza, birthday cake with crayon candles, a beautiful environment, and quiet. Also got some great gifts.
Today is Monday and the four of us are going to venture out into the mountains of NC. I’m a little nervous about it because in order to get to the house you have to drive down this incredibly steep driveway. The area to park the car is small. If the car didn’t stop and continued to move as you reached the flat part then you would go off a 15-20 foot drop, hopefully to be stopped from barreling down the mountain by trees. Looking around yesterday I noticed no cars that had done that, nor any scars on the environment indicating that someone had succumbed to such a scary occurrence. So, while it looks frightening, traveling up and down this driveway safely in an automobile is quite doable. I’m posting some pictures that I took from the deck yesterday. It’s really a lovely house. More photos are available at: House in Sapphire Valley.