About this Time One Year Ago ...

... I had the opportunity to go camping in a place as familiar to me as my own heart - a chunk of land in Ross County where I spent many weekends both as a child and young adult. It's a place that sadly is no longer in the family, but the fates aligned on that one year-ago day and a call to the "new" owners (who live in Columbus) granted me entry.

I hiked the familiar woodlands with my dog -- who had never known that treasured land's wonders -- floated in the soft waters of the pond, built a campfire, and watched the stars pop through the sky's night curtain as the sun sank below the hill. My sojourn to this place of solitude gave me an inner peace I hadn't experienced for a couple of years. When I got home the next day I was dog tired, had a tired dog, but was renewed in spirit.

Maybe about this time one year from now, I'll ask the landowners if a lone camper and her dog might once again escape to nature's magic kingdom. Where I can hike the hills with my girl, float on soft pond water, and simply get lost in the flames of a campfire.

Collage o' the Day