As I sit here writing and thinking what to say I'm looking at my beautiful vase of daffodils. I love daffodil time and spring.

I lived in Palm Beach County for 47 years and it was a wonderful place to live. I am grateful for the time I lived there but when my husband retired in 1999 we decided we needed a change. We were visiting the Asheville, N.C. mountains for several years when gradually we knew we needed to move up here. So in 2000 we did.

What is interesting is that New Years Eve in 1999 we had a turn of century party. We invited our friends who believed in creating their own reality by the way they thought. So we had a bonfire in the back yard and gave everyone paper and pen to write out what they didn't want to bring into the new century. Then we had everyone throw their paper into the fire and watch it go up in smoke which is all about cleansing and changing our energies. We invited everyone to write out their goals, dreams and wishes for the new century. The newspaper got wind of our ceremony and showed up. We were one of the groups featured in the paper about what we did for celebrating the new century. It was quite powerful.

Everyone's goals and dreams actually manifested too. It seems everyone either moved or changed jobs ... We sold our house and moved up to the mountains. It's been quite an adventure.

Another interesting thing is that I was agoraphobic for 30 years and didn't travel, eat out, or go to movies. I didn't see my first mountain until I was 50. I remember driving in the first time I saw the Smoky Mountains in the distance and I thought there was a big storm brewing. I thought, "holy cow, this looks ominous." The closer we got the more I realized these were mountains. The sight of them took my breath away because they were so beautiful.

We were visiting some friends who had moved up from Fla a few years back. It was October and they took us sightseeing along the blue ridge parkway. My eyes leaked the whole time as I feasted on the gorgeous orange, red, yellow leaves. I kept singing to myself that hymn, "for the beauty of the earth". God made the mountains and then She painted them! What a gift.