Turning Points

Sometimes life's direction turns on a single hour

Hinkson Creek Trailhead is 1.2 miles from our door. You could stay on trails starting here, and walk all the way into Kansas. We do a lot of walking, and those steps will eventually take us home.

Yes, it has been longer than a week since I visited my own Substack space. That’s not normal. Life is so not normal.

There has been right much friction against doing what we used to do by routine and habit. Today marks three months since our initial move into Lenoir Woods on September 10. It has been a wild ride. But I think I see less chop on the waters in the months ahead, and calm seas would be welcome. I’m too old for this.

There is a writer’s group here that meets monthly. The suggested writing prompt this month was “a turning point in your life.” I thought I’d share.

My whiplash-90 degree turn happened in November 2002. I refer to it as my “Appalachian Epiphany” and it changed the trajectory of my life. Because of this one hour, everything that came after took a different course that lead me to the “belonging” and roots I was longing to find.

Next post I will share three things:

🔼 The early passage from Slow Road Home where the trigger to my AHA! was hearing about the ancient serpentine rock that Sharon McCrumb mentioned in her talk that night at the Presbyterian church in Floyd. Its southern terminus was near Birmingham, where my love of mountains was born.

🔼 The “So What” flow chart I enjoyed cobbling together as I revisited this crucial life chapter, just to lay out in my mind the ramifications of this one pivotal event 22 years ago.

🔼 The research paper from Anita Puckett’s “Appalachian Identities” class at Virginia Tech in the term that started in January, 2003. This research introduced me to my community of Floyd County, Virginia and lead to more questions about “who we are because of where we are” and to opportunities to contribute and grow in so many ways over the years.

It had come to me not in a sudden epiphany but with a gradual sureness, a sense of meaning like a sense of place. When you give yourself to places, they give you yourself back; the more one comes to know them, the more one seeds them with the invisible crop of memories and associations that will be waiting for you when you come back, while new places offer up new thoughts, new possibilities. Exploring the world is one of the best ways of exploring the mind, and walking travels both terrains.. Rebecca Solnit

Maple Self Portrait October 2024