A Love Letter to North Carolina . . .
North Carolina is home now. While I fiercely love the state where I was born and lived until my early 20s (and again briefly in my 30s), North Carolina is home base. I don’t live in NC – but it’s home. I lived there for most of the last 23 years – with a couple of detours. The mountains of North Carolina have my heart. I had a secret dream, I only shared with a few, to live there someday and start my business. But I also spent recent weeks applying for numerous jobs there (10 or more). I’ve been through a lot since 2019 – a long line of deeply painful losses and experiences.
The grief is insurmountable at times. The one thing I held onto was making a move to the NC mountains. To say I’m heartbroken is an understatement. This week has been awful to see it unfold in this way. I’m heartbroken because of the suffering. I’m heartbroken to see a region I love so much facing such devastation. And I am trying to figure out a new plan for my immediate future as for the foreseeable future, WNC must focus its efforts on recovery without additional resources going toward outsiders.
I’ve seen firsthand people desperate for help after a hurricane. I’ve volunteered (because we couldn’t work at first, due to the infrastructure issues) in my community. I talked to desperate, crying “neighbors” who had nothing left, after their roof caved in, or they lost everything to the flood waters. To think that this disaster in Western NC is drastically worse then what I’ve seen, is hard for me to fathom.
But NC. Oh, my sweet Carolina. You are a sight to behold. From the shore, to the highest summit, you are home. Across countless communities, your farms feeds us. The NC mountains are incredibly beautiful. They’re a spot of solace and peace in a crazy world. I’ve stayed in small cabins that were a place of rest. In the summer of 2022, I stayed in the cabin below and didn’t listen to a single thing – no music, no podcasts, no audiobooks (and there was no TV). It was the silence I needed. It feels easier to find it there.
The Asheville area…
A few photos from the High Country
The photos of the people sitting by the river above, were from my visit to Grandfather Vineyard and Winery. That seating area is now gone thanks to Helene. However, the rest of the vineyard/winery is okay – which is great news. The mountains of North Carolina – from the High Country around Boone & Blowing Rock to the greater Asheville area to TN/NC line to The Great Smoky Mountains are among my favorite places in the world. Two of three of my upcoming novels are set there.
A few things I love about NC . . .
North Carolina is a beautiful state that has retained so much open space, untouched forests – to include 830 square miles of national forest, and miles and miles of marshes and swampy hinterlands that charmed the heck out of me. Even with its larger cities like Charlotte, Raleigh, Durham, Greensboro, & Winston-Salem, it retains so much open space, which I love. When I drive between home in NC to where I live now, I drive through miles and miles of completely untouched and undeveloped land, and farms. For someone who grew up in Southern California – where it seems as though every available bit of land is bulldozed for shopping and homes – NC quickly won my heart. When I fly into and out of Southern California, it’s a sea of asphalt and concrete. When I fly into Charlotte or Raleigh, it’s trees and rivers and creeks as far as the eye can see. Even the cities are surrounded by this beauty.
NC is my muse . . .
As of now, all of my novels are set there. From nearly the beginning of my time in NC, it has been one of my muses. It is a place of beauty and charm and though there are many things about it that drive me crazy (like its politics sometimes), it has become home. This week has been painful. I feel powerless to help from here. I feel lost about what the future holds because my plan seems impossible (or close to it) now. After all the grief, that was almost too much for me. I didn’t handle this week very well.
But what this week has reminded me of, is how much I love The Old North State. I look forward to the day I can return.
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