HOMESICK, INTERLUDE

TODAY, MORE THAN MOST DAYS, I LONG FOR SIGHT OF HOME.
LET ME SHOW YOU WHY...

[With deep gratitude for the above 3 videos to Bo Taylor, a man who has inspired many. Sgi!]

{You may want to turn down your sound for the next one...the waterfall's 'voice' is far more wonderful when you can sit beside it...for hours and hours and hours.)

Her waters are so cold, but full of life!

There are no videos or photos that can do justice to the beauty, the sheer magnificence of "Grandfather Mountain".

As he comes into view, one can feel his great age, the millions of years that he has stood and weathered some of the highest winds recorded on earth at his peak.

He has been called earth's oldest mountain, while others say he is "among the oldest".
THIS mountain, more than any other, defines HOME for me.
While I love them all, I love him best.

ANCIENT...

Gvgeyu!

STAND FOREVER!

"MOUNTAINS THAT SMOKE"

HOW MANY SUNRISES, HOW MANY SUNSETS HAVE THE MOUNTAINS SEEN?

When those who don't live in these mountains see photos like those above, they tend to doubt that colors like that are "true".
I assure you, the colors are far more intense and much more incredible than that.
No lens but that in the human eye can capture them.

Her mists, rising from below, are created at the feet of the mountains!
To watch those mists rise, like a thousand, thousand campfires, swirling up and up, giving life, the precious moisture that makes life thrive there, is a sight I could never grow tired of.

 And to awaken in those mists, look out and see and walk into "clouds", have them envelop you, be lost in them... 

It is an embrace like no other.

[Full screen...http://smokymountainpictures.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/smoky-mountain-panoramic.jpg ]

A splendid panoramic shot! Still, to look out on it with your own eyes far surpasses even the beauty this photo captured.

HOME!

THE PATH LEADS BACK AND MAY I TAKE IT!

HOME!
JUST A LITTLE FURTHER!
A FEW MORE TURNS!

HOME TO THE PEOPLE...THOUGH MANY WHOM I LOVED HAVE WALKED ON. SORROW AT THEIR GOING, PEACE TO THEIR ASHES.

AND MAY I SIT ONCE MORE AND LISTEN, LISTEN SO CLOSELY, TO THE WORDS OF THE ELDERS, THOSE WHO HAVE PRESERVED FOR US WHAT WE ALMOST LOST.

I REMEMBER...

THOUGH I AM AS OLD AS SOME, I STILL RESPECT THE WORDS ALL SPEAK, DEEPLY APPRECIATE HOW THEIR HEARTS HAVE HELD ONTO A LIFESTYLE FEW WILL EVER IMAGINE.

WHILE I WENT OUT INTO THE WORLD TO BE SWEPT AWAY BY THE PASSAGE OF TIME AND "HIGHER EDUCATION", BY THE EMPTY PROMISES OF A "BETTER LIFE", THEY REMAINED WHERE LAST I SAW THEM.
THEY KNEW LIFE WAS "BETTER" THERE.

THEY SIMPLY STOOD AS THE MOUNTAINS HAVE, WAITING, WAITING... AND EACH DAY THOSE OF US WHO LEFT HEARD THE GENTLE VOICES OF LAND AND PEOPLE SAY, "COME HOME..."

HOME...
HOMESICK...
I HAVE BEEN ALMOST TWO YEARS GONE FROM HER.
ENOUGH!

OH, THAT JUST ONCE MORE I MAY AWAKE IN THOSE MISTS!

THE PATH LEADS BACK AND MAY I TAKE IT!