Demon

 I just finished reading Barbara Kingsolver's "Demon Copperhead."  Lately, I am reading novels about Appalachia, its culture, people, suffering and beauty.  I really got into it.  I told God that I had to drop the prayers fo awhile, the getting holy, and all, because I was reading this novel, 540+ pages.  And Knoxville, TN is in there, where I lived for eight years.  Anyway, I cried at the end, and not before.  I am an ocean guy.  And sometimes the best love is the surprise right in front of your clueless life.  The ocean is my home, but for now I belong here in these mountains, letting go of a life and finding one that has always been inside me, and around me.  Demon Copperhead had to step away in order to see all the beauty that was right there in the mountains and in one young lady.  Opioids, big business mining companies, foster care and a lot of dying are all there.  But there is Recovery.  Redemption.  Resurrection.