Vacation in Vermont

We just spent a week in beautiful Manchester Village, Vermont.  (Kib, you did a great job!) 

Since we were at a horse show, the week moved on what I call "barn time."  

(It's funny to me how "barn time" and "DC RBI time" are similar in the sense that there are no clocks.  There's a schedule, but precise timing is a non-essential element.  It is most refreshing sometimes to live on "barn time" -- to get away from our bondage to the hands of the clock.)

I wondered why "Vermont" got its name, and then it came to me.  It wasn't rocket science, but I took some pleasure in thinking about it without first consulting Google."  In French, vert + mont = green mountains.  Vermont is the Green Mountain state.  Pretty simple, huh?  There's a bit more to the genesis of the name, but you can go read all of that on wikipedia.

And yes, the mountains are green.  It's funny how mountain range names are awfully darn descriptive sometimes:  the Rockies are rocky, the Smokies are cloudy like smoke lingering, and the Green Mountains are indeed green.  

Before he died, Henri Nouwen wrote that one of the three great movements of life is from "loneliness" to "solitude."  Solitude can indeed be found in the Green Mountains.  It is so very quiet.  The trees absorb the sound, but they also speak a language that soothes.  You know this so very well when you take the scenic drive to the top of Equinox Mountain.  If you could sit there for a day, you could watch the sun and the sky, the clouds and the shadows, the trees and the flowers, the wind and the silence, and the solitary animals all tell a story.   I think the lesson they teach is that we are not alone in our loneliness, but rather we are greatly loved by Someone who constructed all of this for us.  I need that reminder often.  I suspect we all do.

I have to close this post by describing how much I cherished every moment that the entire family could spend together.  Watching the older two make the progression to adulthood is a great joy and a pensive realization at the same time.  I spent some time at dinner one night -- the night at the Sirloin Saloon where I was somewhat quiet -- just observing the family dynamics.  To the older two boys, I want you to know how much I notice that you're growing up into fine young men.  In case I never get the right moment to tell you personally, I want you to know I'm so very proud of you both.  And I'm going to miss you when you go off to school in the next few years.

My own Dad told me one time that he became more sentimental the older he grew.  Dad, I'm beginning to see what you meant.