...with the sound of the Harris Family! John is home for a bit before heading back out to his extended business trip...and he only has a teensy bit left. I know this feeling. It's the feeling you had when you were a little girl with a ginormous (my favorite word from the movie, "Elf") scrape on your knee that pretty much covers your WHOLE knee. You have one of those super duper crazy sticky bandaids on it and it's time....time to rip of the bandaid that has given you cushion between the scrape and the world. Your mom stands perched over the bandaid and your half close/half open your eyes and you squeench up ready for the rip. You can FEEL the rip off before it happens.....and this is where our family stands. BUT...before we rip off the bandaid of sending John on his way....again...you need to take a little trip with me. We are "Garmisch Junkies". I cannot explain it...when we go there...we are renewed. It is nestled in the Bavarian Alps and because we love it so much...it beckons us back time and time again and time and time again we follow it's call. Garmisch is very close to where they filmed part of "The Sound of Music" and if you have never been to this part of the world and you have seen that movie, let me be frank and say that THAT movie does not do Bavaria....Austria....justice. As we were hiking through a gorge the other day we stopped and John said, "It never gets old, does it?" It doesn't. It's magnificent and amazing and breath taking....but it is only a sliver of a glimpse of Heaven....wow!
The hills are truly alive with the sound of music! The cows...big and milky brown...wear big, open bells. Everytime that sweet cow moves his big heavy head...a warm deep bell rings out. And there are lots of cows...moving around....heavy deep bells ringing all 
over the place with the cold jagged mountains rising behind them. They ring non-stop...even ringing out in a fantastic thunderstorm one night. I thought, "Are those cows still eating or are they running for cover?" I couldn't see that far...but their music still rang out in the night. The other sign of the bovine music makers is cow patties. I grew up around cows and Mary and Elizabeth and I pointed out LOTS of cow patties (don't ask...I don't know why we pointed them out...). "YUCK! That one is gross!.....That one is dry and you could throw it....DADDY!!! I stepped in cow poo!!!" Everytime...Momma and Daddy would say, "It's just used grass...". Huh....used grass....it softened the blow. Grass is green and soft and pretty....this crap-o-luh al over my feet...squishing between my cute white toes is just used grass. Not so bad....okay...that's a stretch. We spent a good deal of time trying to get poo off of our toes. Nasty. Which brings me back to Garmisch and the cows and poo.
over the place with the cold jagged mountains rising behind them. They ring non-stop...even ringing out in a fantastic thunderstorm one night. I thought, "Are those cows still eating or are they running for cover?" I couldn't see that far...but their music still rang out in the night. The other sign of the bovine music makers is cow patties. I grew up around cows and Mary and Elizabeth and I pointed out LOTS of cow patties (don't ask...I don't know why we pointed them out...). "YUCK! That one is gross!.....That one is dry and you could throw it....DADDY!!! I stepped in cow poo!!!" Everytime...Momma and Daddy would say, "It's just used grass...". Huh....used grass....it softened the blow. Grass is green and soft and pretty....this crap-o-luh al over my feet...squishing between my cute white toes is just used grass. Not so bad....okay...that's a stretch. We spent a good deal of time trying to get poo off of our toes. Nasty. Which brings me back to Garmisch and the cows and poo. We love taking the "Kreuzeck Bahn" up up up up up u
p up the side of the mountain and hike down. It translates to lots of moaning and groaning about 2 hours into the walk but at the end you feel triumphant! We rode up in the gondola.....ooooooo....ahhhhhh......and proceeded to look for a place to eat lunch. We found a "what is this place??" porch from a little hut and ate our sandwiches....and started out on our 4 hour hike....when it happened. The girls were twirling around, carefully pointing out cow poo and Catherine slid right into a "fresh offering". FRESH....a word that is nice for bread....babies....underarms.....toothpaste....not so much for cow poo. Andrew calls it "dookie"...oh, boy. The look on her face was priceless. She stood there with her face in a stare...then she looked at her foot...then at me....Emily was doubled over....and I said, "Cat, it's just used grass...wipe it off in the clean grass." She looked defeated as if the cows were hiding behind a mountain "hutte", peeping from behind the weathered boards, waiting for a young frau to step in the wet dookie...high fiving each other and mooing with delight. Catherine felt betrayed by the mountains that she loved so much. And...with all sincerety she said, half mad...half tearful..."Dang, cows. They should be potty trained!" We all laughed and laughed. Oh, the mental picture. Cow potties.....to avoid cow patties. Catherine spent the next 30 minutes getting the "stuff" off of her feet and shoes and we just soaked in the beauty of what surrounded us. I cannot tell you how a good old fashioned walk can cure the "deployment" crud. We spent 8 days in Garmisch and everyday we felt the wounds of John's original departure fade and a new dred begin.
p up the side of the mountain and hike down. It translates to lots of moaning and groaning about 2 hours into the walk but at the end you feel triumphant! We rode up in the gondola.....ooooooo....ahhhhhh......and proceeded to look for a place to eat lunch. We found a "what is this place??" porch from a little hut and ate our sandwiches....and started out on our 4 hour hike....when it happened. The girls were twirling around, carefully pointing out cow poo and Catherine slid right into a "fresh offering". FRESH....a word that is nice for bread....babies....underarms.....toothpaste....not so much for cow poo. Andrew calls it "dookie"...oh, boy. The look on her face was priceless. She stood there with her face in a stare...then she looked at her foot...then at me....Emily was doubled over....and I said, "Cat, it's just used grass...wipe it off in the clean grass." She looked defeated as if the cows were hiding behind a mountain "hutte", peeping from behind the weathered boards, waiting for a young frau to step in the wet dookie...high fiving each other and mooing with delight. Catherine felt betrayed by the mountains that she loved so much. And...with all sincerety she said, half mad...half tearful..."Dang, cows. They should be potty trained!" We all laughed and laughed. Oh, the mental picture. Cow potties.....to avoid cow patties. Catherine spent the next 30 minutes getting the "stuff" off of her feet and shoes and we just soaked in the beauty of what surrounded us. I cannot tell you how a good old fashioned walk can cure the "deployment" crud. We spent 8 days in Garmisch and everyday we felt the wounds of John's original departure fade and a new dred begin. It's almost time to tear off the bandaid but we wouldn't trade the wound for anything. It reminds us that love and relationships are just that way....sometimes you are walking thru the mountains being refreshed by the view....and sometimes you step in dookie. Sometimes you are doing both at the same time. But, in order to be in the mountains you gotta risk the cow piles. 
It's worth it. All of it.
2 comments:
I felt refreshed just reading this! Cow patties can sometimes be a real commentary on life, can't they? I miss having cattle at the farm.. the alive smells and sights remind me that life is a series of little occurances (sp?)/ I can't seem to spell that word... oh, well.
It's all in perspective isn't it? You always teach me such wonderful lessons--I love you all and you are in my prayers.
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