Tribute To The Bluff

Two weeks ago, I went back to the bluff. 

The bluff that taught me about livin’ and what growing up looks and feels like. 

It will probably be the last time to walk its premises and take in the View from the Bluff. Sadly, it’s no longer mine to enjoy. Life changes and some changes are easier than others.

I spent much of my time looking at the outskirts of the newly developed property - the parts untouched by progression.  The edges that seem to still hold my life story. Like the plum trees still near the base of the bluff along the canal or the physical features of the side of the bluff that brings back memories of digging, traveling, and exploring the bluff’s terrain. I didn’t know dirt and the ground could mean so much to me. 

My dad’s old fence line still stands on the back of the property behind a now beautiful and expensive rod iron fence. Dad’s barbwire fence is one you’d see in an old Western movie...picturesque.  As my parents and I take inventory of what is left, my dad proudly makes known, “I put that old railroad tie into the ground.” Still holding the fence securely in place. I’m sure flashbacks of the hours and hours he poured into this land ran through his mind. 

Part of the ravine where my brother and I spent hours riding our motorcycles up and down brought about the sweet memories of spending time with my brother and how I wanted to ride a motorcycle just like my big brother did.

The bluff supports a new foundation now. There is not much of the land that isn’t developed, paved, or landscaped. It’s purpose has changed. The only thing that remains on the original 12 acre homestead is the old oak tree that stood next to our neighbor's house, which sat right in the middle of our property.  

It still stands, but no longer is able to see the sunrise coming up from the northeast mountain range.  A new structure blocks its view, but the aged tree can still enjoy the pleasure of the beautiful Idaho sunsets in the west.  Those were my favorite!

This tree watched our neighbors, Jim & Margaret Peterson, build a little red house next to it.  Then in 1969, a young couple bought 11.5 acres from Jim and Margaret’s 12 acre property and raised their two kids and various livestock on the bluff for 36 years.  I’m always mesmerized by large elderly trees; wondering what they could tell us from their point of view.

It’s November…a season of gratitude easily overlooked as the festivities and flurry of Christmas expands into Thanksgiving’s territory.  But this year for the month of November, I would like to pause and find gratitude in the stories that have made me who I am today by making a Tribute to the Bluff.  I want to share with you what this wise old tree saw over a short course of 36 years and has survived to tell even with all the recent changes. Life lessons that live on inside of me, yet easily forgotten in the much faster-paced and complicated lifestyle of adulthood.  

There are treasures in our past we often forget when we are so focused on our futures. 
I pray my words this month will honor the days gone by and bring about a new found joy and gratitude in unwrapping the ordinary moments and reveal the extraordinary value in our stories.

Join me this month as I share my stories, my past, my old homestead as a

Tribute To The Bluff!