Terry and Donna Clements
Years ago, our family trekked to the top of Whiteside Mountain. Having visited the Plateau on numerous occasions, crisscrossing this adventure and that, Whiteside had been reserved for the decades-long birthday I was celebrating.
Arriving at the crest, I was overcome by the beauty presenting itself before me like some humongous, living, opened-at-the-spine atlas of our southeastern United States. It took my breath away—the emotional enormity of it all.
Standing alongside my beloved, with a sweeping easterly gesture of my left arm, I stated, “There is our past.” And with another dramatic movement of my right arm, as if conducting the orchestral topography before me, I proclaimed, “And there lies our future.”
It was a mark in time, a recalibration of my compass, altering the future for me and my family. The very next day, we found what would soon be our new home, nestled beneath the very umbrella of forests we had gazed upon just hours before.
The recall and retelling of that moment still takes my breath away. The ground we stood upon during my proclamation is now the ground we look up to every day. It is our present.
In all its majesty, the southern façade of Whiteside Mountain is the outdoor movie screen from my youth, and we, the viewers. We exist within an ongoing presentation set to a strict 24-hour replay—dawn’s warm spectrum, dancing light and shadow, and the evening show shaped by moon, stars, and planets.
My husband says I am a prophet. One prophetically fulfilled experience, a prophet doth not make. But that one moment—speaking aloud my heart’s desires to the celestials—changed everything. Divinely speaking, due south became our true north.
And as I am always one to question (i.e., rationally converse with) the Divine, I asked over and over, “Why?” For years, no reply.
Then Editor Luke recently sought me out to send inspiring words your way and help The Laurel retell your stories. For the first time, my soul transcribed the words: “There’s your why.”
Because a lifestyle magazine shines only as brightly as the creativity, backbone, and compassion of its readers, I look forward to sharing how you came to belong to the Plateau. What brought you here?
What keeps you here? What keeps you coming back? What is your thrilling tale of how the Plateau became your True North?
What took your breath away?
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