On a Lighter Note 🎵
Bound for Wide Open Spaces
Listen to this post by clicking the red triangle below:
Dear Friends,
Wednesday morning, I awoke deep in midwinter to 29 degrees Fahrenheit and a forecasted ice storm. I scrambled to get the car loaded with two mountain dulcimers and my travel companion, Ruby. Just as we hit the road bound for Nashville, the freezing rain started. Sleet pelted the car like showers of glass shards, and an hour of clicking sounds really stressed Ruby out. Usually she’s very comfortable on road trips, but not this time, thanks to the mysterious tiny bits attacking us.
As we traveled South into Ohio and the weather warmed, freezing rain turned into light rain, then into no rain. By the time we reached Cincinnati, we arrived in SPRINGTIME! Clear blue skies, 78 degrees (t-shirt weather,) and daffodils blooming everywhere! The experience felt so surreal.
We pulled up to our little AirBnB house, driving past countless neighbors out walking their dogs, parents pushing strollers and kids running around barefoot on the greening front lawns. While Michigan was being covered in a thick shell of ice that weighted trees to their breaking point, pulling down power lines and even the poles with them, Ruby and I were transported to another season.
Today’s Wonders
We walked the neighborhood and my happy dog returned to a calmer state, the sunshine melting our roadtrip tension.
Down the street, we caught a glimpse of this guy dashing across the neighbor’s back yard! Anyone recognize him?
“Who doesn't know what I'm talking about?
Who's never left home? Who's never struck out?
To find a dream and a life of their own
A place in the clouds, a foundation of stone”
Thirty years ago in the autumn of 1993, I packed a dream and my belongings into a compact car and moved to Nashville, Tennessee. For 23 years. More of my Nashville story will be told in future Excerpts from Wonderworld posts and perhaps a memoire, but for now, I’ll tell you that those 23 years brought me more moments of wonder than I could have ever imagined.
Yesterday, Ruby and I left Cincinnati and 72 degrees. Thank God, the five hour drive was rain free. Road weary, we pulled up to the farm and home of our dear friends and exhaled. Well, actually, I exhaled and Ruby yelped with excitement, leaping right over me to get out of the car to see and sniff her old doggy pals. Our friends welcomed us with warm hugs and exuberant tail wags, and we all sat out on the driveway under the slivered moon while the pups got reacquainted.
After last week’s incomprehensible tragedy at Michigan State University (which I wrote about in the February 17 blog,) it seemed impossible to find any light-hearted moments. Many of you endured hours of worry for your children and friends and suffered great shock as you discovered the terrible news. My heart has felt broken along with those of you who witnessed or waited out the traumatic events. I know that the healing will come, but for many, it will take time along with medical and mental health intervention. I’m so effing glad that mental health treatment is more accepted and accessible today because there are masses of witnesses to USA shootings needing it.
There are other sources of healing, though, available to us at no cost. It helps to be reminded that even in an ice storm, even in power failures, there are wonders right in front of us. I hope you’ll take a moment to stop and look at the crystalline trees and find the magic in them. To feel the warmth on your hand from the candle flame that lights up the powerless room you are in. To settle into a hug offered from a friend or even a stranger, letting the kindness of that embrace into your spirit just a little.
From here in Nashville to wherever you are, I send reminders of the good that still exists in the world. The intrusion of Wonderworld happens sometimes in the most unexpected places. At a truck stop in Louisville, look what I found next to the TOILET! For reals.
Wondrous Music
I’m not the first Nashville dreamer to find their story in this anthem. Written by Susan Gibson, The Chicks (aka The Dixie Chicks) made it famous in the nineties. Here are the lyrics:
Wide Open Spaces
Who doesn't know what I'm talking about?
Who's never left home? Who's never struck out?
To find a dream and a life of their own
A place in the clouds, a foundation of stone
Many precede and many will follow
A young girl's dreams no longer hollow
It takes the shape of a place out West
But what it holds for her, she hasn't yet guessed
She needs wide open spaces
Room to make her big mistakes
She needs new faces
She knows the high stakes
She traveled this road as a child
Wide-eyed and grinning, she never tired
But now she won't be coming back with the rest
If these are life's lessons, she'll take this test
She needs wide open spaces
Room to make her big mistakes
She needs new faces
She knows the high stakes
She knows the high stakes
And as her folks drive away, her dad yells, "Check the oil!"
Mom stares out the window and says, "I'm leavin' my girl"
She said, "It didn't seem like that long ago"
When she stood there and let her own folks know
She needed wide open spaces
Room to make her big mistakes
She needs new faces
She knows the high stakes
She knows the highest stakes
She knows the highest stakes (wide open spaces)
She knows the highest stakes
She knows the highest stakes (wide open spaces)
Do take a minute to listen and watch it. The audience response is priceless.
This afternoon, I’ll join the first friends I made in Nashville in the gorgeous mountains southeast of here in Monteagle, Tennessee for a weekend of hiking on my favorite trail in the world, the Fiery Gizzard trail. (Only in Tennessee, right? 😂) I’ve been dreaming of this trip for years. It may end up being a weekend of playing music around the fire and board games if the rains don’t let up!! But, I’ll be happy to be there either way. I’ll be sure to take photos and video of the incredible beauty there. I’m happy to be able to share it with you.
Stay tuned for next Friday’s letter for more Excerpts from Wonderworld.
Until then, Thank you for taking time to read today’s Substack!
Feel free to comment below — your notes are an encouragement.
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I wish you fresh joy and eyes to see that wonderworld is in and around you.
Don’t miss it!
With lots of love,
Linda and Ruby
Loving your letters Linda....such fab photos too...Love seeing rubymeister xx
Good to know! The Cincinnati zoo is one of my favorites. Go if you can… but Ruby can’t. 😢