Every so often, Jordan and I have a very "Asheville" experience that reminds me why I'm so thankful that we live here.
When we moved from Birmingham in July 2015, I was so nervous. I'd lived in Memphis for a year, but other than that, Alabama had been my home throughout my childhood and young adulthood. It was alien to consider the idea of living in another state, let alone one in which neither Jordan nor I had any friends or family.
Moving away together was one of the greatest things we could've done, both for each of us individually and for our marriage. Picking up and going somewhere neither of us had any connections created any immediate need for us to cling to each other and really grow as partners. We became stronger, more intuitive to the other's needs, more grateful, more generous.
So when Jordan asked if I wanted to go watch the sun go down on Max Patch, a bald on top of a mountain about an hour away, my answer was, "YEP." We packed Tom Hanks, a picnic, some wine, and took off.
To our surprise, the mountaintop was filled with other folks who had the same idea. While at first it was a little annoying that we weren't as original as we'd thought, it became a kind of community experience. There with forty or fifty strangers, we watched nature really show off.
Here's a little "pretty" for your Monday morning. Happy October!
