Anniversary Bells

On the morning after our anniversary, we continued the celebration of 39 years of marriage by carrying on a tradition we began several years ago.  We walked out to Sunrise Point at the Lodge and rang the big bell hanging there 39 times, once for every wonderful year, listening as its deep tones reverberated and sang out over the valley below.

We had read the guest book the night before - a little, bound book on the bedside table containing comments and poems and reflections from the guests who have stayed here over the years, many of them celebrating anniversaries and birthdays.  Martha read one to me that sounded familiar and I realized that I had written it several years ago.

And this is what I wrote in 2003, our first time visiting this place, still memorialized in one of the guest books for others to read:

Snowbird Lodge

On our twenty-fourth Anniversary, after more than one

Wrong turn in Graham County, we found this place,

In the hardwood high above the clouds:

Squirrels in the feeders, finches in the trees,

Deep silence accented by birdsong, and

The music of fountains always playing.

To rediscover your love for someone--

What a wonderful thing!  To know that

Hearts can be exchanged and lives shared

For good.  So Happy Anniversary:

We can take this place with us when

We leave, and we will always belong here.