“Outside is good for your inside” is something you’ll hear me say pretty often. Most usually I say or write that phrase sitting inside wishing I could be doing something outside.
For the past week, we’ve been outside more than inside, traipsing around the Great Smoky Mountains and visiting little towns like Sylva and Robbinsville in North Carolina. The little towns that cause you to look askance at your navigation system when it tells you you’re forty miles from your destination, with an expected arrival time two-and-a-half hours later. Narrow roads, tight switchbacks, slow progress and great views, if you dare take your eyes off the narrowing road.
This part of the country is where I’ve come to regroup for more than 65 years, and it never fails to help me recharge. My father’s side of the family has been traipsing these hills for hundreds of years. My mother’s side came long after them, but have shared the feeling these hills and mountains (with apologies to my friends in the Rockies) really are special places.
The mountains are living entities. They go through seasonal changes that mimic our own circle of life, budding in the spring, blooming in the summer, then fading in the fall before going dormant in the winter. Unlike us, they repeat their cycles, reminding us that there really is a season to everything.
This week, we enjoyed the recharge, but were also reminded that nature isn’t always benign. An unexpected outbreak of storms spawned a line of tornados that reminded everyone at Snowbird Mountain Lodge (great place) that nature is still in charge. The line of storms that moved across the mountains downed trees and power lines, flooded roads, and severed power, communications, flooded rooms, removed shingles and isolated Snowbird. The staff pulled together a limited breakfast menu for the guests, then got busy clearing roads, rounding up stray umbrellas and trying to cope. As of Thursday, they still lacked power, phones and internet…but they were still smiling.
Their former guests moved on, while scheduled arrivals waited for word when they could start their decompression visits.
Our recharge concludes today as we head home after a special birthday recharge visit to Long View Resort, home of the region’s only spa -and one of the best places in the mountains to relax -and take in a bit of the Perseid meteor shower.
The recharge is nearly complete, and I’m convinced more than ever, that outside really is good for your inside.
– Jim Shepherd