the mountains are calling………….

“The mountains are calling and I must go.”
John Muir

I need more time than what I am currently afforded to express to you my life long love of “the mountains”…this love may have been innate–something that was instilled in me at birth. The culmination coming during college when I spent my summers in Black Mountain, North Carolina.

Be it the Swiss Alps, the Pacific Cascade Mountain Range, the Appalachian Mountains, the Pyrenees, The Rocky Mountains, The Apennines in Italy….my heart and soul are at peace in “the mountains”–I always feel closer to God when I’m in the mountains (that whole getting higher and closer to Heaven…remember from yesterday)…so it is no wonder that mountain laurel, that kin to the Rhododendron family, is the primary calling card to spring/summer time in the mountains. Joyful, vibrant and screaming….”the snow has melted, the weather has warmed, come, I’ve been expecting you….”

This particular mountain laurel bloom is from Oregon’s Cascade Mountain range, near Mt Hood—it’s a beautiful calling card beckoning all of us to come visit, all of these mountains have been expecting us…….