High on Spirit Mountain: Foreword

WHAT I'VE BEEN WORKING ON:

It's been a long time since I put out a book. It has to do with two major moves since 2021, two surprise surgeries that kept me nearly bedridden for months (in the middle of the cross-country move no less), my on-going work at Gabriel's Horn and the Books and Brews podcast, and our on-going steep learning curve as we make the shift from suburbs to self-sufficiency. 

Also, I somehow decided to write eight or nine books at once. Not the best way to go about things, but here we are! I blame it on my husband who just keeps coming up with such great ideas. Five of the books are in the Ivy Leake mysteries series--more on that elsewhere. 

One is in a series I hope to continue, Saints for Wives and Mothers, the first of which is on Elizabeth Ann Seton, whose life spanned the very last days of America's colonial years and the first approximately forty years of the new country of America. Her life is a fascinating study both in history and character, as she goes from rubbing shoulders and attending parties with the luminaries of her time, including George Washington, to being a poor widow charged with the care of young children, nothing left from her husband's failed business and being ostracized by former friends for her faith. She suffered many losses in life and went from wealth to poverty. How she handled life's challenges is a lesson for all of us, as we will all face challenges.

And finally, I'm working on a series of three memoir-style books that document our adventures and learning curve as we move from suburbs to self-sufficiency. I always joked with my students that I like music because it's safe--no one gets hurt! I have imagined time travel and life in medieval Scotland as a medieval warrior, yet never, as I practiced in the university's practice rooms or taught lessons or played in pit orchestras, did I ever imagine that I would ever be the proud caretaker of a growing flock of sheep--let alone getting trampled by one of the rams or nearly run over by a UTV! (I didn't even know in those years what a UTV was!)

The three memoirs are High on Spirit Mountain, where we took our first steps into a new world in northern Minnesota, Up Above the Hollers as we learned a great deal more and added more to our menagerie and skills in the Appalachians, and The Book of Ruth, which tells the story of the woman who was my roommate in the hospital during one of my emergency surgeries that happened as we were preparing for our cross-country move. Yes, Ruth really was that interesting! She deserves her own book. I look forward to finishing it! The story begins....

FOREWORD:

In 2020, life was a box of tangled threads, some bright, some dark, an unexpected mess. Yet every strand in life, every choice, either braids the rope that will save us, or the one that will drag us down. 

Life handed us what we didn’t expect. We changed course, weaving together the threads we’d been handed, of our pasts and of our lives and of the world around us, to weave a new rope to tie our family to hope: a story of unicorns, fairies and a beautiful Irish wolfhound; of enough snow on the roof to collapse our entire lives and magical snowshoeing in our silent forest; of a deadly groundhog and rabbits bringing new life—all threads in that rope. 

In 2020, we faced an unexpected world of shelves bare of toilet paper and Ramen noodles. We saw how close America was to being a world where shelves were bare of food. We gathered the strands of what we had—primary among what we had was our ability to learn—and set out on a journey from the only way of life we’d ever known in the suburbs, to self-sufficiency.

This book is about many threads—the threads of our learning journey, daily lives, politics, faith, and the events of life that gradually weave all of these together. The redemption story of Key West, as one example, is not just a story about Key West—it’s a story about how we face a world that leaves us choosing between the convenient life we'd always known in the suburbs and giving up that convenience for a harder life to pursue the independence our forefathers sought not only for themselves, but for us, their descendants. The redemption of Key West is about the choice to move forward—as we all must move forward with the world as it is, rather than as it was or as we wish it to be.

The threads of our lives will always eventually weave into a rope: we choose what to do with that rope.

ABOUT THE COVER:

When given a choice, there was another cover many people liked, in addition to this one. It had more dramatic colors which made it a little more eye-catching. I ultimately chose this instead, because it felt like the heart and spirit of our home, which we had all too briefly, just outside of Duluth, Minnesota. The house itself wrapped partially around a large deck, such that almost every room looked across the deck and across the yard beyond it, to a man-made creek that started with a little fall, on either side of which sat a mermaid. The creek trickled down into a decent-sized pond with fountain spraying up in the middle. Behind the fountain, on the far shore, two large white unicorns gazed down. Between the fountain and the shore, a bronze fairy about four feet tall stood on a rock, blowing something off her hand.

In fact, much of the 29 acres of our property had fanciful creatures along the ATV trails: unicorns, sasquatch, golden peacocks, sleeping pigs, giant ladybugs three feet across, a family of foxes watching from the woods, green men in the trees, a bear scooping a fish out of the water.

We especially loved the ferry on the rock. Among the things we asked for in the contract, was that the ferry be left. Betty, the home owner, was a widow. Of all the many wonderful creatures across the land, the ferry was a gift from her husband and especially meaningful to her. She took it with her, but when we let ourselves into our new home on August 31, 2021, we found she had left almost all the creatures around the property, including the two mermaids and a brontosaurus by the waterfall, the five-foot glittery giraffe in the hall, the copper artwork of musicians that was designed to have water trickle down its surface in a pleasing melody, the amazing kitchen table custom-made to match the kitchen, and a large envelope on that table. 

In the envelope was an 8x10 metal print of a photograph Betty had of the pond on a misty morning, with the unicorns gazing down and the ferry in front of the fountain. Have fun! We always did! she had written, and Life is magical.

Betty and her husband didn't always have it easy. He worked very hard, including for a charity he founded, and he fought horrible health issues, which ultimately took his life far too young. Yet they faced life with such a wonderful spirit of love, fun, and magic, which shone forth in the land they created, full of whimsy and surprise delights around every corner to bring a smile to any face---monkeys hanging from trees, a lioness lounging on a rock, or a crazy-eyed three-foot tall rabbit laughing crazily on top of a car out in the woods!

We understood her taking the fairy with her--and we were touched that she was so thoughtful, even in leaving the home she'd built with her husband, to have that picture made for us, featuring the fairy we, too, loved.

The long drive into the home had a road sign tacked to a tree: Wizard of Oz Drive. It really was a bit like stepping into a magical land, away from the hard and corrupt world in which we live. The picture she left for us caught that beautifully in the mist, the unicorns, and the fairy.

Life is not always easy. To me, this cover captures the message that Betty and Bryan lived and to which we should all aspire: Life will always have unexpected pitfalls and hardships, but it can still be magical, beautiful, and full of wonder, even when it's not what we expected or would have wanted.

You can see a bit of that magical deck, yard, pond and fountain here:

WHEN IS THE BOOK COMING OUT:

Quit asking the hard questions! 

It's entirely written and it's been sent out to two beta readers. (If you'd like to beta read the next draft, contact me at my author page www.facebook.com/laura.vosika.author or at the Gabriel's Horn X account @GabrielsHornBks.

I still want to go through it once or twice more. How long will that take? Well, that depends. We're on farm time. How many rams break their horns and need emergency care? How many other emergencies and surprises happen? How many of my kids surprise me with visits? They'll always take precedence. How many new projects does my husband surprise me with? (The latest is beehives. I have to build the frames this coming week.) 

It depends when I finish the next read-throughs of several Ivy Leake Mysteries, which I'm also working on, and get back to these read-throughs. Life, I have long since learned, is what happens when I'm making other plans!

But we're close enough for me to start talking about it!

It will be followed by the rest of the story in Up Above the Hollers.

Stay tuned!

If you'd like to follow our journey from suburbs to self-sufficiency, we have a blog at www.glenmirrilfarms.wordpress.com. Our facebook page www.facebook.com/GlenmirrilFarms is updated much more frequently--almost daily.

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