I got this email tonight from a good friend of mine who lives on the other side of the mountain from me in the gorge. Another Florida girl determined to make it up here in the mountains. It's rained hard these past 24 hours, about 5" worth. The creeks were rushing like I've never seen them before. And the sky at dusk was memorable. She writes:

>"I live in a magical, mystical place.

I drive to work, it's early afternoon, and everything is a lovely shade of gray, that clear and fresh smelling gray you get after it's been raining hard for a few days. And as I turn a corner, on my up-turning, bank-hugging, two-lane mountain road, I am completely shrouded by white, thick, standing columns of mist! The whole world turns into the veil of bride, and I move through it, it appears to be chasing itself, billowing and lifting and dancing in the air. And you are nothing, nothing but a passing witness of this moment, this magic, this mystery !!!

I drive from work, it's night time, and all around me is a deep, velvety blackness with nothing to spoil it but dots of light, like diamonds, showing the houses that people live in in these mountains. And as I turn a corner on my down-turning, bank-hugging, two-lane mountain road, the full moon comes out! And it is so bright in these big skies, that the trees cast shadows on the road in front of me, in the middle of the night. I can see the whole sky, the white clouds that are floating in it, the shapes of the mountains all around. I think I can even see God.

Yes, life is simple here and it is hard. But it is magical, mystical, and I don't regret a moment of it."