Dear Reader:

There are just some places that you anticipate seeing items of beauty that mark your day, as well as, your memory…a day of “ordinary” miracles. Yesterday was such a day!

I got home from Mt. Pleasant around 8:00…got a few Halloween photos added to yesterday’s blog and then changed clothes and was ready when Anne and her sister, Sue, arrived. The weather was perfect…cool and a little overcast….now we prayed for a breeze to keep the mosquitoes away. The prayer worked for part of the day.. we made the most of it.

The first thing we did was to walk the labyrinth…it is in its glory in early October…and we could see that it was fading in (now) early November but still beautiful in its simplicity and surprises. Like Archibald Rutledge, South Carolina Poet Laureate, once wrote: “It was October and the dying was so beautiful.” The natural grasses and wildflowers were exquisite… adorned only in subtle shades of autumn….browns, yellows, purples, reds and oranges.

Every time for years now, I would tell myself that the next visit to Mepkin Abbey, would result in me walking the labyrinth. But it never happened…until yesterday.

This earlier photo below (taken by another tourist) was probably shot right after the grass was cut last month… by the time we walked it yesterday…it resembled more a “jungle” path in places where a machete would have helped. Nothing we couldn’t handle…but the grass and foliage were high and covering much of the labyrinth.

Anne and Sue soon left me in the dust… literally…I stayed behind taking photos and completely absorbed in my own little world…so in order for this little munchkin to keep up I had to do a couple of cut-throughs on the yellow brick road.

The saving grace yesterday was the most luscious breeze; it made us feel like we were walking through a Kansas wheat field…and overall the mosquitoes stayed at bay.

One had to play the game “miniature worlds” and look beneath the obvious to find the tiny life living under and around the foliage…the true miracles on this ordinary day.

The monarch butterflies were out to play and this little fella sat and posed for me for several moments….breathtakingly beautiful!!

One of the most unusual moths we saw fluttering through the grasses was this beautiful pink moth. Anne looked it up when she got home and told me it was called “Ornate Bella!”  (I emailed her back and said it sure was!…just gorgeous!)

When the light hit the tall grasses and miniature blooms off the wildflowers it was something to behold.

I have discovered in life that when we stop and get down level with the little miracles in life…they spread our joy and surprise as far and wide as bigger miracles.

Near the labyrinth lies the Nine Firefighters Memorial:

Mepkin Abbey Firefighter’s Memorial
The memorial was commissioned by Mepkin Abbey in Moncks Corner in 2011. Nine cast concrete blocks stand in a circle creating an intimate space of reflection. The memorial is located in the center of a field of Broomsedge with mature live oaks as a backdrop. The design for the memorial was purposely simple and serene. Many visitors have used the stone path to write names and words of remembrance.

I was the first one back (due to a few detours) and as I sat on the welcomed bench and stared up at the tall pines…all I could think of was the amazing history and stories that these trees could tell. Henry Laurens was one of the wealthiest rice planters of the low country with more slaves than almost any other planter, he would be captured, imprisoned in the Tower of London during the American Revolution and later exchanged for Lord Cornwallis at the end of the war.

His son, John, wanted to liberate the slaves and let them fight against the British for their freedom (quite liberal thinking for a noted South Carolina planter’s son)…Henry Laurens is also known for being the first American cremated at a time when it was not a widely accepted practice.

After getting directions to the African-American cemetery we started walking along the path…but it was a long walk and no breeze….and swarms of mosquitoes….so this mini-adventure will definitely have to be delayed until we get some frost to kill the mosquitoes.

 So we got back in the car and went over to the memorial gardens, fountain, and sculptures….Sue said it was here that she could feel the past and the spirituality of the place. It is just so incredibly beautiful…a great place to go when we need to think about our life’s directions at changing intervals along our path.

So until tomorrow…Some of you have already spotted some photos that Anne took yesterday on her Facebook page…but if not please go look at all of them….then truly you see the miracles of nature we all experienced together on an extraordinarily ordinary day! Loved meeting you Sue…we must do another adventure when you return.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh