Brick and Blossoms

see all photos »

After spending three months in Alexandria I ought to write an eloquent and thorough review of the town, akin to all the others that I passed through.

Things I might comment on:

Community is not in a museum. It is in the library and the school and the church and the supermarket.

Of course the flowers. The cherry blossoms were here and certainly more numerous and more lovely than any I've seen before. I also think that every homeowner is required to keep (or pay someone to keep) a beautifully manicured lawn and garden overflowing with tulips, hostas, peonies and azaleas.

see all photos »

This is not DC. Alexandria is distinctly its own city and would be just as wonderful if there weren't a Smithsonian for a hundred miles.

Everything is old here. By which I mean that there is a profound sense of history in everything. New buildings built with brick and columns in the classic colonial style, meant to last as many hundreds of years as the one next to it. Even the attitudes of the people, their outlook on the world is shaped by a respect for the past; whether they are the descendents of Independence and Civil War revolutionaries with a strong association with the land, or quite new to the land but do it credit by remaining true to the communities and cultures they remember.

see all photos »

However, these things have little to do with what I've been doing here or why I liked it or why I will miss it. I came injured and dejected and my family swelled around me. They nursed me back to health physically and spiritually. I've been singing in the choir and playing with babies, getting to know the extended family that I never would have known, being part of the church and volunteering from time to time. Community is not in a museum. It is in the library and the school and the church and the supermarket. It is watering the lawn, walking the dog, waiting for the bus and bringing the tulip bulbs in for winter. They say I was a "big help" getting the house ready for the wedding, but surely there's no amount of trim painting that can settle my account here, for as well as they have cared for me. The wedding was perfect, by the way. The most beautiful ever, I would say. Ever.

see all photos »

And I have been walking; retraining. I am up to 40 miles a week which I can continue to increase by 10% per week! So I am leaving Alexandria and heading for the Appalachian Trail near Roanoke. I will be out there for about 2 weeks before veering out of Virginia finally and heading across Kentucky. How I will make it to Oregon before winter, I'm not yet sure. Keep an eye on me here. I should be posting every few days. I won't personally be looking at the site and receiving messages though. If you'd like to drop me a line, please do so at my hotmail address.

see all photos »

Thanks to all of my friends that have been praying for me and have called and written their love and concern. I need that more than anything. I'm going back into the unknown world. Smile at a stranger, smell the baby, drink from the public fountain.