I remember the first time I drove up becky mountain. it was probably 2004. I had a minivanful of girls in tow. we were taking one of those girls up to free rein for a horse therapy session. it was winter. I thought anyone who lived up here must be crazy. while the rest of us waited for the girl with the lesson (this was back when free rein was at sugarbush farm, which I now think of as an extension of our yard pretty much) we drove to eagle lake and played on the swings and threw rocks in the water. I didn't know that wasn't allowed and miraculously no one said a word to us about it.
I remember the first time we drove up becky mountain as a family, to look at the house we live in now. we made the trip down from asheville and I still thought it was a crazy idea to live up here, to make this curvy drive daily. I have since learned that it wasn't all that long ago that becky mountain was a dirt road all the way up to the seeoff switch. a neighbor here on the mountain tells tale of learning to drive in the sixties before it was paved. her daddy told her if she could drive up becky mountain in a stick shift she could drive anywhere in the world so she did it over and over until she had it down. that daddy was probably right.
somehow a few years ago eric got it in his head that he should run up becky mountain. so one thanksgiving he did. it was so cold his beard was frozen by the time he got home. our friend lev was visiting and he danced circles around eric all the way up the mountain, but it kept eric going. and it made eric want to do it again. and again and again and again. it became a tourist attraction for anyone who came to visit: see looking glass falls, eat at bracken mountain bakery, and run up becky mountain. and most of our visitors were totally in. over and over the kids and I stood at the mailboxes to cheer for our friends (stevie. lindsay and maeve. kyle. jason and stephanie.) and over and over I just thought they were all nuts.
but yesterday I joined the ranks of the crazy. not only do I make that windy, curvy drive up and down becky mountain every day, I have not made that climb on foot as well. it is exactly three miles from the bottom of the mountain to our front door. I didn't run much at all, but I did it. on my own two feet. all three miles in 53 minutes. boo yah.
it is a very different experience to walk a road you are used to driving. I noticed different things all along the way. I couldn't believe I could still hear the cows from the bottom of the mountain even as high as halfway up. I saw driveways I'd never noticed before, I told myself stories about people living along the route I pass through so very often. I thought again about how much of our lives, our spiritual selves is shaped by where we are, the physical geography that surrounds us. how deep the mountains are etched into who I am. how I relate to this place like I was born to it. how even through the asphalt through my sneakers I could feel this ancient hill in the very core of who I am.
I sang out loud until I was too out of breath to keep up with the tempo of my feet, and even then music poured through my head every step of the way. over and over I heard my deepest self say, "this is all that is required of you: one more step. one more step." and that is exactly what I did. one more. one more. one more. until I was home.
it is really all that is required of any of us. one more step. all the way home.
Put one foot in front of the other Steppin' into the here and now I'm not sure just where I'm goin' But I will get there anyhow
I got this far with no direction Followed my nose to where I stand My heart's still strong, I know I'll make it Sit right down in the promised land
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