Saturday, August 18 “Family” (Kreg)

Familiar faces lift the spirits when you’re on the trail. Weeks in the woods, all people and places unknown, leave you with a profound sense of gratitude for everything and everyone in your life that otherwise might go unappreciated. This is perhaps the single biggest lesson it has taught me.

My aunt and uncle live two hours from my childhood home, yet before today, I’d never spent a day alone with them. Although just a glimpse of their lives, the day left an incredible impression of who they are and what they stand for.

We had breakfast with food fresh from the farm, and then my aunt and I headed to the grocery store and a nearby EMS. On the way, we stopped by the public library, where my aunt sits (or sat – I am writing this a few weeks later) on the board. She is fanatical about the value of public libraries and the potential of books to better our lives. In fact, you can’t find a TV in their home. Their children’s bedrooms (Daniel and Anna are much older and don’t live there anymore) are littered with books that kept them busy as children.

We went back home, and my aunt headed out to a funeral – she volunteers with a local choir that mainly sings for the terminally ill. My Uncle Allyn and I hung back, talking about some of our favorite readings and his work running the Zen Center just a few miles away. He sees immense value in the power of solitude, meditation, and self-reflection. He also serves as a minister at a local hospital, where he counsels the sick and dying.

We picked vegetables from the garden, including a gigantic zucchini that I thought was otherworldly but he claimed was not nearly as large as the baseball-bat sized zucchini they sometimes grow by accident. He left for the afternoon to attend a workshop on how to protest ICE traffic stops in New Hampshire that have been resulting in the deportation of migrant workers who have been working there for years.

At night, we had another wonderful dinner and talked about all things big and small: my hike, our family, my aunt’s upcoming purchase of a new bike (she’s an avid cyclist), their newfound grandparenthood. They are such open, honest, and caring people, and just a day with them was food for the soul (and the stomach).

69°F Light Rain

Lebanon, Lebanon, NH, United States