A Road Most Taken

Good Morning, Wednesday, January 16, 2019

My house tops four acres sloping away in all directions. When I moved onto this property, except for having a house on its one level spot with a paved downhill driveway, the place was weedy, rocky, undeveloped. There was space for horses about 100-feet from the house. After fencing that area, I built a barn. To care for my horses, I had to drive a mile, circling the neighborhood and re-entering my property at the barn. Finally, I built a road from my house down to the barn–a mitzvah! No more circling the neighborhood. Since then, multiple times daily, I’ve traveled up and down my road on foot and in vehicles.

This convenient road while often lovely sometimes becomes mega-challenging. During early evenings in fall, incredibly bright, gorgeous moons peer down, greeting and drawing me toward them. Regardless of how tired I may feel, a yen to hug the glowing orb eases my upward mobilization. In contrast to such moonlit moments, Central Oregon also receives heavy snows that make navigating my road difficult.

Vehicles that travel over my road during and soon after snows leave tire tracks. The snow covering these imprints in periods with varying temperatures melts and then re-freezes. The tracks become slippery and make my road dangerous for walking. I’ve learned to poke along the road’s less-trodden edges, wielding hiking sticks to identify the least slippery spots.

This blog’s header photograph shows an early evening and new snow covering my road. The sky is heavy and obscures the moon. Atop the hill from within my house, an inviting lit-up window seems moon-like. It suggests a ready fireplace and a mug of honeyed hot tea. I move toward it.

Some evenings I feel too tired for the trudge uphill and pause wishing I’d strung a rope to pull myself up all the way. In those moments, I try to rearrange my outlook and seek an inspiration that entices me upward. Certain visions inspire, like dinner ready in a crockpot, something I’m eager to watch on television, having to fulfill some kind of commitment, and above all, a source of light that draws me like a firefly.

Dear Readers, have a great day, Diana.