Sweet Sorrow, Aug 3, 2013

Bless this house

O Lord we pray

make it safe

by night and day.

It is a time of sadness but joy as we pack up and move out of our home here in the mountains of California, in the tiny town of Dorrington. Later today we will drive out our long driveway for the last time. 

We have owned a home in Calaveras County for nearly 30 years, even though we have lived here full time for only a few of those years. Calaveras County is not the end of the world, but as they say, "You can see it from here." That is almost literally true. Alpine County, just to the east, IS the most sparsely populated and most remote county in the entire state of California. 

So now the time has come for us to sell our home and leave this scenic, forested locale.

The memories of our life here are many, whether in the winter with the sometimes heavy snowfall, or in summer when we hiked the mountains and basked in the beauty of the High Sierra. 

Here are a few of the special memories that we take with us as we leave:

• the historic winter of 1996-97, especially New Year's Day when we awoke to 3 inches of water on our bedroom floor;
• the time when a bear came through our yard, nose in the air, all too interested in the steaks I was barbecuing;
• the time when a bold bobcat sat in our snowy driveway and we stared each other down (I was in the safe confines of our upstairs study!);
• the many ski trips Nathan and Cindy and I enjoyed to Mount Reba Ski Resort, up the hill a short ways;
• the summer of 1998 when Nathan lived with us and worked at Bear Valley;
• the time when we had 29 youth and their sponsors from our church spend the night here before a ski trip;
• the time when Gary and Cindy drove down our icy driveway and their car slipped into the forest and they had to do without it for a few wintry days;

• the time when the "Yayas" (a group of women in our family, spent a week here (see picture);
• the many other times family and friends visited, especially those few times when our dads enjoyed themselves here, in both cases not long before they died;
• the Sunday morning about 10 years ago when a foot of fresh snow made getting out of our driveway a daunting challenge; our Jeep Cherokee powered through the soft snow and then the berm at the top of the driveway, but just barely, and we made it to my church responsibilities on time;
• the few times recently when our young grandchildren were able to visit (see picture of Presela on her bicycle);
  
  
• the Christmas when we dedicated this house, with a blessing that included the prayer at the top of this post.

What a great home this has been for us, and what a special area this has been in which to live. But life changes and with sweet sorrow we move on. This house has blessed our family in many ways. It will now be a blessing to someone else.

- - -
Steve Shepard