Medicine for My Soul

The heavy cloud-bank hugged the top of the mountains. Insubstantial in the physical realm, the ethereal beauty made it appear solid, like a living thing.

I don’t know why the first sight of mountain peaks makes me feel safe, secure and at home. I am mermaid by birth but these southern mountains feel like home for me. And it’s been that way since I was a kid. The Smoky Mountains were always my first choice for family vacations. And once there, I didn’t want to leave. On childhood visits I remember a deep sense of sadness when I had to leave with my family to return to the Alabama coast.

Several years ago my life-long dream of living in the mountains came true and I purchased a mountain home in Asheville. Equipped with a huge wall of windows and cathedral ceilings, I lived in a true Tree Church. But big water called me to Her and I sold my home and moved back to my place of birth.

Inspiration feels like work for me in the flat, coastal land…my soul feels lost. But one glimpse of the magnificent cloud, rolling and caressing the high peaks, and I felt alive again, at home with myself again.

The most productive and creative part of my life was while I lived on the side of a mountain. The sensation was one of expansion, of reaching out to touch something bigger than me….that was also reaching out for me.

Florida is where I’m ‘supposed’ to be this weekend. I had planned to be cave diving through the clear, underground aquifers in north Florida with friends but last week I had a strong inclination to change gears and visit ‘my’ mountains…perhaps as a way to fix the malaise in which I’ve found myself over the past year….or more.

Sure enough, as soon as I saw the mountains enveloped by cloud I felt aligned, at home with myself and at peace.  I felt I could breathe again. How can I bottle this and take it back to my cottage on the coast?

It’s odd, seeing that I feel at home diving underwater with rays, fish and coral more than I do walking among humans. So why are the mountains…specifically the Smoky’s, my spiritual home? Do they remind me, like being underwater, of my inner wild woman? Or some past from another time?

Maybe no explanation is necessary. Perhaps my soul needs the vastness of the ocean and mountains, both of which call to my wild spirit. Here, nestled among the oldest mountains on the planet, I feel support and love from the Earth herself. I feel myself breathe and expand and connect with Spirit effortlessly. This is Medicine for my soul.