Guest Post: My Mama

Dear  Kate,

What an amazing two weeks we have had. I have fallen in love with your little part of the world, honey. Who wouldn’t? You asked me for my impressions a couple of times during our trip and I thought I would jot them down for you.

It all began with a grand impression when you kicked  off our arrival with a soul filling drive over hill and dale as we stood up through your car sun-roof (and Jordan drove very slowly and safely) to experience the full effects of the apple blossoms at their peak of bloom and fragrance. Everywhere we glanced there was another hillside covered with flowering trees!

Another day, ambling down country roads touched something deep in each of us as we encountered bleating baby goats and sheep…bleating at times a little excessively as you lured them into their electric fence…(totally by accident).

I loved our hike through the Black Forest, and it struck me so powerfully that these were in fact the very same woods through which Little Red Riding Hood and Hansel+ and Gretel traversed during their own flirtation with danger. Though I don’t remember reading that they had a close encounter with a wild boar (or maybe just thought they heard one once).

I easily and eagerly fell into your life’s rhythm of getting your bread from the bakery everyday and taking your basket to walk to the market to pick up your fresh produce (Is there a village more suited to Kate Jones than this?)

 It took me a full 10 days to realize that kucken and streusel were not in a breakfast food category, but rather desserts…

Who knew? Who wanted to know?

Several things about those living in Kandern inspired me. One was the high value put on gardening. No matter how small a space, it was made beautified by something in bloom. Every corner, nook and cranny had been cared for in this way.

I also noticed and was inspired by Kandern’s (or more accurately Germany’s) elderly. Of course there were able bodied people of all ages bicycling and walking all the time, but what I loved was how the elderly got out there on their canes and rolling walkers walking the same paths they had been walking all their lives, and likely that their grandparents and great grandparents had been walking all their lives. They didn't seem afraid to fall or to be walking alone– they seemed driven to walk and get outside. And they walked long distances!

Remember the dear man we met upon arriving at Sausenberg Castle? (that castle the we drove to?)  I was blown away that he had actually walked there... from Lorrach! I love that the walking trails all over the countryside have connected these villages for hundreds of years. This is just a way of life here! It's an old way of life that holds on to things of value like spending time outside walking and gardening. I saw many, many people eating and laughing together outside on old tables with plastic table cloths – it didn't look like a Martha Stewart Living magazine – it didn't have to. It was real and the connections were real, and that’s what made it beautiful. I’m sure I am making it much better in my imagination than it really is. But that’s ok – I was on vacation.

It is obvious upon arrival in Kandern that the buildings you see are old (and beautiful). I think that this undergirds a way of life that is old (and to me, beautiful). Living in a village you never have to leave and in which you can walk everywhere; to church, to the market, to the bakery, to school, to your grandparents. It slows life down a bit; you chew on it longer, savor it more. This was very attractive to me. I walked around Kandern a lot looking at the funny shaped houses and gardens – never sure whose garden belonged to whose house.

But whose ever garden it was was very invested in it – they were beautiful! I had so much fun walking all over Kandern while you guys slept in. The cemetery was amazing – a garden in itself – people actually went to the cemetery and took care of the plots – at least during Holy Week.

And in my mind I made it be that the people who watered (with the watering cans at the cemetery for this purpose) valued those who went before them and had a sense of the importance of personal and family history – it mattered – it wasn’t disposable.

On our last night I felt it again as we went up the hill to the war memorial. It was a beautiful place to see the sunset – but I was also drawn to the other side of the hill overlooking the village of Kandern. It was very poignant to me sitting in the shadow of the monument which had a long list of names of those killed at war…an identical list exists in the town square in our Lake Bluff – sons, brothers, husbands and fathers– all who died – all who were deeply missed by those in their respective villages…

I loved what I saw and felt in Kandern; there was a life there that felt deeply connected to the village – I felt it and I loved it. So my darling, these are my impressions of your wonderful village as seen through my rose colored glasses. Thank you for a wonderful trip to a very special place that touched my soul.                    

I love you,

Mom.