Anniversary

Last Wednesday marked our one year anniversary in beautiful Asheville. I am feeling more at home here every day. The city is alive with art and culture and the mountain ranges that surround us are old, vast and amazing. The summer air is still hot around us but you can see autumn color beginning to creep in already. Soon the leaf peepers shall descend upon the area in droves.
We will begin moving into our fabulous new house on the downtown side in a matter of weeks!!
Life is good.

Almost Camping

Last weekend Dustin and I took advantage of our long anticipated days off together and went camping. Or, what I like to call, "almost camping"
Being that is was short notice, we packed up the truck and headed down to Brevard to an official campground. One with full facilities and little square plots where you pitch your tent. Not my ideal version of camping, but beautiful none the less. It was on the Davidson River in the Pisgah National Forest and the weather could not have been more superb. Rustic it was not, but it was lovely to get out of Asheville for just one night. We took a leisurely drive back to Asheville on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Here are some pics of our excursion.

In The Moment

Dustin and I were in a car accident yesterday and we are lucky to be alive.
Driving back from a lovely lazy Sunday drive in Hot Springs (on the Tennessee border about 30 minutes away) a summer rain started to pour heavily down upon us. It seemed to only be pouring around our immediate area because I could see blue skies in all directions. All of a sudden we started hydroplaning and our truck got pulled, with a powerful rush of water running through the road, into oncoming traffic. It spun around, slammed against a guard rail and missed a red Mustang by literally less than an inch.

It is the fourth car accident I have been in in ten years, and I can honestly say that I have never been more in the moment than I have during those harrowing incidents. It is truly as if time stops and you are going in slow motion. My senses are magnified and I am aware of every second, every movement, every beat of my heart.

Dustin pulled the truck to the side of the road and immediately took me in his arms. We held eachother in the rain, in shock, not a scratch on us.
"I love you" we both kept saying over and over.
Our truck had a busted headlight and a dent in the front and that was it. The strangest part about the incident was that neither the Mustang that we almost hit, nor any of the other handful of cars that witnessed the accident stopped to see if we were OK. Not one. They all drove past as if we were invisible. Two shaken ghosts, holding onto eachother and shivering.

On the drive back, as our shock was wearing off and our irritation growing at peoples lack of concern, the reality of what just happend really began to sink in. And from that our thankfulness for eachother, for our life, for every simple thing began to grow. We had planned on going out with friends, but plans quickly changed to a quiet night at home. We went to the store and bought ingredients for pasta and salad. We held hands the entire time, stopping frequently between aisles to look into eahcothers eyes. As if we never realized how lucky we were to be grocery shopping together! How fortunate we were to be able to spend a lazy night at home together. An otherwise boring evening had turned into a celebration! Of our love, and more importantly our LIFE.

I strive to be as aware of every moment of my life as I was for the 10 seconds of our accident.
To appreciate it for the fragile amazing gift that it is.