Many, many years ago we celebrated Christmas with my aunt and uncle in their Washington state cabin. It was a long drive full of pestering siblings, raucous carols, and heightened tension. When we finally arrived, I stepped out of our cramped jeep and onto the mossy dirt. The air was so thick and the wood so quiet I immediately felt heavy, grounded, rooted to the very spot. I took in that fairly isolated cabin in the woods. Everything around it was green and practically dripping. It was winter, but it was also Washington, so it was a little chill with only a light dusting of white frost powdering the upper pine branches. The cabin itself was woodsy and rustic; larger on the inside than it looked from the front. The forest around it was still. At that moment I had discovered something: a lovely, soul touching refuge.
Throughout the week we spent time together as family sledding, exchanging presents, eating. We were boisterous at times, and all of it was enjoyable. I love being close knit with my family. I love spending time, all of us together. We drive each other nuts sometimes, but that is fine. All of us holed up in that place was warm, cozy, and oh so much fun. I loved it, certainly.
What I loved the very most however, were the quiet moments I spent sitting on a window ledge with my book looking out at the misty clouds and sky-scraping evergreens. The moments I wandered the dripping woods. The moments I touched the spongy moss, walked silently among the trees, and took the heavy air into my lungs. To this day I still remember the dense heaviness I felt during those quiet times. It was reassuring and calming. I connected to it so deeply and it was completely unexpected to feel so strongly about such a drizzly, gloomy place.
Thus, when I think of a safe haven, a refuge, I think of that woodsy green cabin in a heavy forest of pine. I could live there forever in the wet and rain. I could let my skin turn pale and my hair frizz. I could grow roots among those trees and feel protected, safe, anchored. I could live and thrive in such a place. It would be safe, it would be haven.
Do you have such a place, a safe haven, where you would go for a refuge? Tell me more.
P.S. Saw the movie Safe Haven, which is kind of the inspiration for this post, like forever ago and really liked it. Now I need to read the book because friends all say it is so, so different. Anyways, her safe haven looks much like mine would, I think.
P.S. Saw the movie Safe Haven, which is kind of the inspiration for this post, like forever ago and really liked it. Now I need to read the book because friends all say it is so, so different. Anyways, her safe haven looks much like mine would, I think.
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