Day Forty Nine 2013

On the road to Chattanooga

where we rarely travel

the East Tennessee landscape is undeniably beautiful

even in the dead of winter

At some point in life the world’s beauty becomes enough. You don’t need to photograph, paint, or even remember it. It is enough.  
~Toni Morrison

I haven’t reached that point in life just yet.

Day Three Hundred Fifty Five 2011

"So the shortest day came, and the year died,
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive,
And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, reveling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us - Listen!!
All the long echoes sing the same delight,
This shortest day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, fest, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome Yule!!"
- Susan Cooper, The Shortest Day
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Wishing my brother in law, Terry Sissom, a very happy 55th birthday!