“I told you. I told you right from the start. I’d always find a haven for my heart. A haven for my heart, a refuge for my soul…”

These song lyrics rest in the back of my mind, though I forget the author or album. Something Celtic. Something beautiful and moving. It reminds me of a place and time, when my Vermont life began. Long before I knew it would, indeed, become my life.

My bedroom upstairs in Stowe Hollow was my haven of peace and light. It was my refuge. I vacationed there a few years after mom passed. Settling in there felt like I could disappear from my worldly life and rest in that innocent place forever. It was my right place. It had called me to itself. I slept better there, and waking up was filled with the promise of a long day for disappearing on the road, in a book, in the clearing up at Trapps, in the solitude and beauty of the concert field with only the hawks and ravens to speak to me.