Imagine that you’re on a ridge in the southern Appalachians. The ridge drops sharply — not 90 degrees but close — and the next ridgeline is miles away. Now imagine a creek running over the edge. It seems like the water is running into air, but you know that’s not true because it’s noisy.
You have to go down the trail and look up to see Amicalola Falls in North Georgia. But I can’t get over that place the natives call Top of the Falls, where the water seems to disappear.
The Wise Woman, who is a better observer of people than I am, said everyone on the trail stood and watched a long time and finally left with enormous smiles. She struck up a conversation with a woman who has been walking the trail with her husband for years. They once lived nearby and walked the place often enough to have seen a black bear. They now live in South Carolina, but they drive two hours, about once a month, just to see the place.
The Wise Woman, who comes from a long line of Cherokee and African-American herbalists, thinks such experiences are healing in a way we perhaps don’t understand.
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