Last night I got home late, weary from another stressful day. Every Realtor is essentially the owner of a small business - insert-your-name.com - and so far there's been no bail-out money set aside for us.
I was greeted by the soothing sound of a waterfall cascading over ancient stones, each one painstakingly chosen for its color and shape. The water pours endlessly into a new pond, which will be surrounded by some of the 16 TONS of rock my husband has been putting into place, stone by stone.
While I've been dealing with frustrated sellers and unrealistic buyers looking for "that deal of a lifetime," he's been spending hours in backbreaking labor to create for us a perfect little oasis of peace - his gift to me.
He put in the small pond when we built our mountain chalet 4 years ago. It began as a home for my beloved bronze fountain, the boy on a dolphin that I refused to leave behind when we left the Florida Keys for the mountains of Murphy, North Carolina.
Soon we brought home 7 tiny goldfish. Then came the surprises. We sat on the balcony above each day like the gods of Mount Olympus, sipping our morning coffee while life unfolded below. By the end of that summer, we had 19 fish and 3 large frogs that somehow made their way up the mountain from Lake Hiwassee down in the valley. The water plants sheltered tadpoles and snails and baby fish in a rainbow of colors.
Winters are mild here in the Southern mountains and we spent time outdoors nearly every day. On "date nights" we shared a bottle of wine on the balcony, listened to old rock and roll and admired our creation. It became our refuge in a world often filled with turmoil over the past few years.
But the tiny pond wasn't big enough for the koi we'd like to raise or even for the many offsping of our original colony of goldfish. So we dreamed of some day adding a small waterfall connecting to a much larger, deeper pond that would shelter koi through the colder months. And two weeks ago I came home from work to find a trackhoe in my back yard, carefully scooping out clumps of daylilies.
Last night the waterfall was up and running. Soon we'll be bringing home Lucy and Ricky and Fred and Ethel to join our family. As I watched the full moon rise over the ridge, I realized I'm a very rich woman indeed.
Sweet music fills the night, my secret dreams take flight
These ancient hills have magic - on mountain nights.
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