Ode to the Cabin: A Psalm of Nancy

Oh cabin

Place on earth so treasured

Place of fish and fire

Of green and blue

A simple offering

Of rustic walls

Of faith and renewal

Of freedom and play

Keeper of memories

Of laughter and tears

Of wailing in pain

Of hope restored

Balm for the spirit

Of longing and loss

Of belly laughs and beer

Of nights by the fire

A cathedral like none

Altars made of stone and tears

Our favorite place on earth.

April 2012

I decided to add this reflective paragraph that I wrote while sitting by the pond last weekend. It gives some insight into the history of the cabin's place in the lives of me and my children.

Father, my heart is full and overflows through my eyes as I dwell in your love and care--for creatures great and small, and for this widowed mother of three, whose lover is buried in Mississippi clay but whose soul speaks to mine in the plot of land that is the cabin. Even now, fourteen years later, I close my eyes and see him sitting by the island, white bucket of Mississippi night crawlers by his chair, his youngest daughter by his side; his son and first daughter manning their own rods for the blue gills Dad has taught them how to land.

I am so full it's ridiculous!