Sunday, October 21, 2007

Unchained Melody, Unchained Me



Lyrics by Hy Zaret, Music by Alex North

Lonely rivers flow to the sea, to the sea,

To the open arms of the sea.

Lonely rivers sigh,"Wait for me, wait for me!

"I'll be coming home, wait for me!

Oh, my love, my darling,

I've hungered, for your touch a long, lonely time.

And time goes by so slowly and time can do so much,are you still mine?

I need your love I need your love,

God speed your love...... to me!


There are the places we live because we must, and the places we would live if we could. For me, the coast of South Carolina has always been my spiritual home—the place of my dreams and wishes. It is where I return to find strength and solace. I love everything about the area called “the Low Country.”

The moment I step outside the Charleston airport, I stand and sniff the air like a lost dog searching for home. My heart thrills and my spine stiffens as we drive over the Cooper-River Bridge, with a main span of 1,546 feet (471 m), the longest among cable-stayed bridges in the Western Hemisphere. For more about this fabulous structure go to http://ravenelbridge.net/

Rituals shape my visit.

1.) I stay on Kiawah (KEE-ah-wah) Island, a place as ecologically near to its beginnings as possible considering the human habitation. I’ve seen bobcats, herons, alligators, loggerhead turtles and crabs. http://www.kiawahisland.org/

2.) I eat at Rose Bank Farms Restaurant—My salad of choice is a wedge of lettuce with Clemson cheese, my main dish is shrimp in tasso gravy on cheese grits, and dessert is blueberry buckle.

3.) I buy books at Indigo Books.

4.) I walk the beach.

5.) I walk the beach.

6.) I walk the beach.

7.) And I read books and listen to the ocean.

How about you? What’s your favorite place? Is it where you live? Or just a place you get to visit?


"Everyone has a holy place, a refuge, where their heart is purer, their mind clearer, where they feel closer to God or love or truth or whatever it is they happen to worship," writes J.R. Moehringer in The Tender Bar.


Where is that place for you?

3 comments:

Camille Minichino said...

Manhattan, no question. I am immediately energized by the sounds and smells and crowds on the streets.
Leave me in the courtyard of the Frick on 5th and 70th, or at any room in the Met and I'm set. I can meditate, write, read, be at peace while at the same time full of creative energy.

Joanna Campbell Slan said...

Wow, Camille, that's interesting. I can see why, though...

Kathryn Lilley said...

Paris! I feel like a different person in that city...