“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” – Henry Miller. Take for example, Nancy and Cheryl, two neighbor girls, who were sure their chores at home were the worst burden of all. One summer Nancy and Cheryl were sent to the Jackson’s mountain farm, and when they came back, their minds had changed.
They both lived comfortably in a small town with a mother, father, and siblings. Dutifully, they did their chores every day before going out to play. When the postcard came from an old friend of the family, inviting the children to visit, both girls jumped at the chance. The girls imagined a vacation with goats to pet, burros to ride, bright gardens and friends. They smiled as the bus travelled along the flat roads of the Colombia Gorge. They were off to a wonderful vacation, far away from their life full of household chores and siblings. Soon the cliffs and scrubs disappeared as Ponderosa Pines and mountains appeared.
The bus stopped in a tiny mountain town, and they were met by a scantily dressed family. Two toddlers, a baby, and their exhausted mommy and daddy. The heat was harsh, and the baby was bare bottomed. The old farm truck groaned, and the gears scraped as they drove on a narrow, winding mountain road that seemed to go on forever. The girls began to wonder about this wonderful getaway.
The family lived in old barn, which was destined to be a house, when there was money to fix it up. Someday it would have a kitchen, a bathroom, and a heater in every room. For now, without electricity, it had none. Up the mountain a way, there was a small cabin the girls slept in, with a special garden out front. The garden--full of weeds to be picked, the cabin, full of mice. To wash up every morning, they trekked down past the goat barn, over the creek, to a water pump. It took all their strength to get the icy water to fall into their buckets. Then, they lugged the water up to the barn for the family.
Cheryl and Nancy were up with the sun, squatting on a three-legged chair with their heads in the side of a goat with bursting teats. Their hands ached from pulling the huge nozzles, until the bag was empty. Gratefully, the goats wandered out in the fields, then back again before supper for the same. By the end of the two weeks Cheryl liked the smell of her sweat against the goat fur. The small children needed tending constantly, except when the girls were needed to scrape the bark off the felled trees for a new house.
Nancy and Cheryl were never so happy to come home again! Home, where each was the youngest in their family, and their homes had running water and electricity. If they learned anything on this trip to the mountains, it was to be grateful for what they have.
