The cabin waits for us like an old friend. Nostalgic feelings and warm wood tones greet us each time as if we’d never left. My dad’s brother, Uncle Steve McDonald, bought this sacred piece of land deep in the woods of Mount Holly and commissioned a local craftsman to hand build the cabin specifically for family get aways. And it has become a special place to anyone who has visited it.

Us Texans don’t have much of a typical fall. As such, I have found it to be a good and necessary endeavor for my creative soul to travel up to Vermont to feel the shift of the season and to find my place in the landscape that is changing all around me. I love to pack the sweaters and escape the heat to celebrate the rhythm of letting go to usher in a new season. And in a year where everything changed, and the world stopped, and we were forced to look at ourselves, we couldn’t help but take stock of what actually matters, of the bits and pieces of our daily rhythms that are worth fighting for and so many that need to be forgotten.

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A good day in Vermont consist of sleeping in, hot coffee, long hikes, canoe rides, reading a book by the wood burning stove and happy hour at golden hour. And if adventure calls, even a traditional plunge into the frigid waters of Lake Nineveh in nothing but your birthday suite.

The colorful tapestry of trees is not the only thing that calls me back year after year, but the inviting nature and slower pace of the small towns, our traditional stop at the Long Trail brewery to sit in Adirondack chairs along the Ottauquechee River or shop the local markets for Vermont cheeses and fresh ingredients to cook homemade meals in the cabin.

Many milestones have occurred in the cabin. Back in 2011, unbeknownst to me, my man had a plan. He dropped to a knee on the shores of Lake Nineveh and asked me to share his name. Just two kids alone under the moonlight in Vermont.

After I obviously said YES, we wandered back through the woods to the fire and announced our epic leap to my family. We danced in the cabin to Willie Nelson’s “Moonlight in Vermont” drunk on love. They celebrated with us for days! Even forming our initials with their bodies on the hillside of the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream factory 😂

The Cabin has been a place of refuge when life doesn’t only rain, but pours. After the Buse family lost their home in a storm in 2015, we retreated here to restore.

Vermont has been a gathering place for all of us to unite and reignite the spirit of my Dad, who lives in all of us. Last year on 10.10, the 10 year anniversary after his graduation into heaven, we packed the cabin full of love and life in his name.