A Little Mountain Therapy

Hi everyone!  I want to thank you all so much for your kind visits and thoughts for my family.  My father is still in the hospital; he's currently undergoing physical therapy.  I just spoke with my mom, and she said he's doing well.  It is a very slow process, though, for him to recover his strength and stamina.  By the time he's able to go home, he will have been in the hospital for about a month.

Lake Santeetlah

This is the view from where I sat yesterday morning.  Now you can see how the Great Smoky Mountains got their name.  

When I was very young, our family traveled to the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee, and I asked my parents if the mountains were named after Smokey the Bear.  Does anyone besides me remember Smokey the Bear?  Anyway, my parents thought that was a hoot, and we still laugh about it to this day.

 Life has been somewhat stressful lately.  Our summer started off quite nicely, but as we all know, life takes unexpected turns.  Even so, we are still blessed and luckier than many out there. The destruction of Malaysian Flight 17 over the Ukraine has been so much on my mind; that people can be so cruel to one another breaks my heart.  Good news these days seems to be a very rare thing indeed.  In addition, I've been worried about my parents.  But we've had this trip planned since February, and my mom said we needed to go.  Hal works so hard, and he needs a break -- and we both needed a change of scenery.  So off we went.

We drove through a big storm on our way here.  I'm talking thunder, lightning, rain, and hail -- lots of big trucks in both lanes and us in our little convertible.  Whew!  We were glad to drive out of that. We arrived and checked into our usual room.

It all looked cozy and familiar.

We exchanged the latest news and happenings with Maury, one of the lodge owners.

We started unpacking and realized our clothes were soggy; the hard rain had gotten in through the zipper of our suitcase which was stored on the luggage rack.  Note to self:  Next time put the suitcase in a drawstring leaf and lawn bag.  Sigh.

 Then, when we started to get ready for bed, we realized we'd forgotten our small case with almost all our toiletries at home -- toothpaste, deodorant, husband's blood-pressure prescription, sunscreen, etc.  You see, we were slightly distracted when loading the car because we discovered right at that time that we had a leak from our kitchen drain pipe down into our finished basement room.  This is the same leak we had repaired last fall, and it caused a big mess in our basement.  This time, they'll have to tear out part of my kitchen cabinet to replace the pipe.  So my husband said, "Let's just go, and we'll take care of it when we get home."  As long as we're not running the faucet or the dishwasher, the pipe doesn't leak, but I'm not excited about dealing with this when we return home.

When we got to bed, I was so aggravated, I couldn't get to sleep.  I laid there and stewed and fumed about all these things until about 2:00 a.m. and was worn out the next day.  Do you do this, too?  Why do we let the small things that can't be helped eat away at us and spoil the happiness we're given?  We are blessed to be able to take this trip, to be able to get away from the hectic pace of the workaday world for a few days.  To let small worries intrude on this time is a kind of ingratitude, and it doesn't solve any problems.  Life is not perfect, but it's still pretty darn good if we make the best of it and appreciate what we have.

The stuffed head above the fireplace reminds me of my favorite deli meat -- Boars Head.  I don't eat wild boar, though.  ;)

On Friday morning while Hal went to check out the Miata events, I spent a few hours on the porch with Miss Potter.  I could feel the stress and irritation draining out of me.

By lunchtime, I could tell that the peace and quiet here and the beauty of Mother Nature had done its work.

When we get home, we'll deal with our problems like everyone else does -- one thing at a time.

Until then, I'll let the lake keep working its magic.  :)

The Blue Waters Mountain Lodge is a beautiful and restful place for a getaway.  If you live in or near North Carolina or plan on visiting North Carolina, you can find information about the Blue Waters at their website Here.  You can tell Mike and Maury that Denise and Hal sent you.  :)  This is not a paid sponsorship -- just sharing one of the places we love with you.  

I hope you're having a good weekend, wherever you may be, and I hope you're not sweating the small stuff.  Thank you for your visit and for reading about my little slice of life. 

 
Blessings,

Denise