It could partly be my own ability to find beauty in the natural world across a broad spectrum.
I seek that out because I need it to calm my soul, to still the noise of the world of people. In today's environment I would probably be diagnosed with ADD, autism, social anxiety disorder or some such thing and pumped full of drugs.
When I was a child there were no such things and cognitive behavior therapy or act right or suffer the consequences allowed me to find my way in the world in a way that worked for me. I appear "normal" within the acceptable range of human behavior.
My need for nature, my connection to it, is considered a talent, not an abnormality.
But the land of my birth is jammed packed with way too many people. Two blocks from these pictures a six lane divided highway plastered with strip malls and rumbling with the traffic of scurrying people must be navigated to live in the real world. I don't want to do it.
A long time friend with whom I stayed for a few days in order not to ruin the surprise part of the 80th birthday party had company when I arrived, a couple I had first met on Maui. Unbeknownst to me it was also my friend's birthday two days later. These connections and coincidences of family and friends bind me to the world I often try to evade.
Whether I like it or not I am a social animal and I need human contact. That too can soothe the savage beast.
I may not be able to grow this Beautyberry, Callicarpa americana in the mountains of North Carolina, it sparkled in abundance at the resident gardeners Florida garden, but Callicarpa dichotoma, a slightly different species is better suited to this colder climate.
There is something about South Carolina and rural exits on the interstate. Twice now I have found a gas station, a church and a cemetery right off the exit. Yes I know, the road always leads there. The how and what of the journey to that end is what is most important.
The land in Florida is flat. After the Colorado Rockies and living on the flanks of Haleakala for so long I have grown accustomed to a land with a view, not just a view at the waters edge.
On the drive back, once I got past the tidal rivers of grass and forests of pine in Florida and Georgia, I got a second look at fall. All through South Carolina up to the Blue Ridge Escarpment and some ways into the mountains a trail of color welcomed me home.
I am connected to the land of water like a ripple moving on the surface. Without it, the ripple can not exist, but by its very nature the ripple moves away.
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I was noticing today that there was pretty nice fall color around here - it always happens, right before Thanksgiving, when I happen to look around while driving - and realize that a few maples do exist here (and have nice color) and that the sweetgum trees are a nice deep red and that there are yellows - several different shades of yellow actually.
Sometimes I feel like I was born in the wrong century...or society...or something. There are just too many urban and suburban areas these days...I also feel much more comfortable where I can see more stars and fewer city lights. Sometimes I can hear the owls hoot and wolves howl...even the whip-or-will. I feel blessed.
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