dancing on the edge of the world
Musorrie is a Hill Station in NE India. The British established these places to make it through the hot hot summers. Mussorie is one of the stations and also the home of Woodstock International School with Presbyterian ties.
I was here a few weeks ago with my mother, Gladys and Aunt Margaret. They are in their 80's.
Dancing on the edge of the world
Landaur Villa is as exotic and beautiful as the name may sound. It is a bungalow perched, literally on the edge of the mountain. From it’s porch, which extends around it you, can see all of the Hill Station of Mussorie. At 7,000 you are truly in the clouds. To the East rising above the mists of the mountain valleys the high Himalayas. Their ridges at a great distance in another country still dominate the sky as you look East. What an amazing awesome view.
Did we dance there? Not in the literal sense of the word, dance. But we stood there with Gladys and Margaret and as they walked around their childhood home we heard story after story, Oh look! This is where…. And this went on and on. Binding them to a time before and us to them and that time as well. We were blended into another place, Momma’s desk and the table where they all sat and did their work. The chest that had been in the living room was still there with dishes inside from another owner. It stood as it always had tucked in the corner such rich colored wood. All of this is so beautiful.
Then they stood and looked where they had played as girls with their brothers. “This is the tree, isn’t it, where Dad hung the swing?” They looked up. We looked with them and saw across the branch a rusted piece of metal and links of chain around it. The metal had been placed over the branch to protect it. It had. And the chain with four or five links on each side also rusted. But as we looked we saw it bright shining and young children gleeful around the base seeing the swing for the first time and taking turns to see who could swing out the farthest. It must have been a glorious swing that took them out over the patio and the house. They were girls then and in this moment are girls again.
So that was the dancing. Not a two-step or ballet but a dance of the heart unlike any other.
OH look! Come see! This is where….
God abide
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2007
I was here a few weeks ago with my mother, Gladys and Aunt Margaret. They are in their 80's.
Dancing on the edge of the world
Landaur Villa is as exotic and beautiful as the name may sound. It is a bungalow perched, literally on the edge of the mountain. From it’s porch, which extends around it you, can see all of the Hill Station of Mussorie. At 7,000 you are truly in the clouds. To the East rising above the mists of the mountain valleys the high Himalayas. Their ridges at a great distance in another country still dominate the sky as you look East. What an amazing awesome view.
Did we dance there? Not in the literal sense of the word, dance. But we stood there with Gladys and Margaret and as they walked around their childhood home we heard story after story, Oh look! This is where…. And this went on and on. Binding them to a time before and us to them and that time as well. We were blended into another place, Momma’s desk and the table where they all sat and did their work. The chest that had been in the living room was still there with dishes inside from another owner. It stood as it always had tucked in the corner such rich colored wood. All of this is so beautiful.
Then they stood and looked where they had played as girls with their brothers. “This is the tree, isn’t it, where Dad hung the swing?” They looked up. We looked with them and saw across the branch a rusted piece of metal and links of chain around it. The metal had been placed over the branch to protect it. It had. And the chain with four or five links on each side also rusted. But as we looked we saw it bright shining and young children gleeful around the base seeing the swing for the first time and taking turns to see who could swing out the farthest. It must have been a glorious swing that took them out over the patio and the house. They were girls then and in this moment are girls again.
So that was the dancing. Not a two-step or ballet but a dance of the heart unlike any other.
OH look! Come see! This is where….
God abide
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2007
posted by Bobbie Giltz McGarey at
8:04 AM
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