Daily Courage

On my father’s side of the family, my brother and I are the youngest grandchildren and cousins. When we were growing up, the Cannon cousins seemed so much older than we were. Time took care of what seemed to be a gap and we are reconnecting as adults. Thankfully, my father is the common thread that has kept us woven together over the years. This summer marked front number change birthdays for my father (80) and my brother (50). A birthday celebration led to being reunited with some of the cousins and planning follow-up visits.

Last week, my daughter and I dropped in on two of them. My cousin Tom is a retired English professor with a doctorate in Chaucer. There are no dummies in that branch o

f the family tree! Tom lives on a wonderful spread of farmland in Virginia that has been in his wife, Julie’s, family for many generations. The house is a Quaker balloon frame house built in the 1800’s, which is a far cry from our home in Southern California. It was a rare treat for us to climb the stairs and walk the halls.

At the time the house was built it was state-of-the-art efficiency. It still is. Carefully situated to make the best  use of light and breeze, it is engineered to function with nature. 

Miles away in the small hamlet of Sloatsburg, New York, my cousin Pat Cannon and her husband Dave Spielvogel aka “Dave Keyes”  live in bucolic solitude in a home that has its footprint in the 1700’s. The photo is a little deceiving. This is a real true-to-life vintage farmhouse with a beautiful red barn and rolling fields. 

We were blessed to spend two days there recharging our batteries. As we pulled out of the drive and made our way down the tree-shaded lane back into the busy world, I thought to myself, “I am so happy that rural runs in the family,”  and that I had a chance to enjoy its calming and restful ways.”

Tags: Country Living, Eileen Paulin, Red Lips for Courage, rural living

This entry was posted on Friday, August 7th, 2009 at 6:23 am and is filed under Creative Observations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.