Gift's from Serenity Pond

I love the title of this blog. It was an inspiration from one of my Mother's writings. You see that is what she called the pond outside of her log cabin home that she shared with her husband for many years. It was her place for inspiration. A place she loved to be , where she could watch the deer walk in front of their large sunroom windows. And on occasion, there was a bear in the woods that kept company with the woodchucks, beavers, squirrels and various other wildlife.

I remember when she first moved out to the country. I was coming home from a business trip and she picked me up from the airport and we drove straight to her new home. We drove and kept driving. The roads were dark , no streetlights to be had. And I said "Mom, where are we going?, are you serious about this? Really?"

And then we pull off the main road into some woods, down a dirt and gravel road and she pulls up in front of this very small log cabin home. And it was dark! I got out of the car , awe struck at what I saw. I thought she was messing with me. But she wasn't!

We proceeded to walk into this one bedroom , ranch type , very small log cabin. And my "room" was a pull out couch. We settled in for the night and I slept pretty soundly, perhaps it was the fresh air that did it, who knows. For whatever reason, perhaps it was all the animals talking outside as they were greeting the dawn of the new day, I awoke pretty early.

My Mother and her husband were sleeping, so I thought I would take a shower and make some coffee. I went to turn on the shower - no water? What? Mmm.. ok.. so I proceeded to go make some coffee thinking that perhaps there was trick to the shower and my Mother would share that with me when she awoke.

I turned the kitchen faucet and no water - Mmmm..what is going on? Well, this will never do. I needed my shower and my coffee!

My Mother awoke shortly afterwards, hearing me gather my things to go home. I needed to go back to civilization and get a hot shower and steaming hot cup of really good coffee!

What are you doing she asked as she saw that I was preparing my bag. I am going home, this rustic living or whatever this is, is definitely not for me! There is no running water for my shower and no water for coffee!

"Oh , we must of had a storm or power outage or something" " Jim, can get the stored bottles of water we gathered in the plastic pop containers and heat a kettle on the grill. I looked at her in disbelief! "Really?"

"Yeah, it's no big deal" she said very calmly. And my reply was "Mom , why do you want to live out here?, there is no mall within miles, no restaurants, no anything except animals talking night and day out there!"

My Mother laughed and shook her head. Inside her mind, she knew that her family would come to enjoy this gift of nature , that she and her second husband purchased.

Little did I know or the rest of my family know, what memories would be created at Serenity Pond.

From that  moment forward, Serenity Pond would be the place her grandchildren learned to fish, where bonfires happened after a day in the woods gathering berries , little children off on their own with their brothers and sisters, with no fears of safety , where wildflowers grew and lilypads drifted in the water.

This would be a place where my Mother wrote some of her finest work, inspired by nature and a place where she taught her family the gifts of Mother Earth, togetherness, peacefulness and where she created Christmas in the Woods.

Serenity Pond.

Thank you Mom, for the Gift's from Serenity Pond.

Kim (and all of your children and grandchildren)