Father's Day on the Mountain

It's Sunday afternoon, Father's Day, on the Mountain.  

It's also the last day of Bonnaroo 2022.  Bonnaroo was canceled the last two years because of the pandemic (2020) and flooding (2021).  I kept my streak alive, though, by getting back to the Farm this year.  Our crew was smaller - only Matteson and me -  but we did it and, now, I've been seven or eight years in a row.  

I went to Bonnaroo Thursday night and Matteson and I went Friday and Saturday.  The lineup wasn't as good as in years past, which was a bit disappointing.  Although I haven't seen attendance numbers, it seemed as if the crowds were down considerably.  There's a lot of competition in the festival space and I'm wondering if Bonnaroo has lost its allure to musical acts and festival goers.  If so, it's had a helluva run.

Matterson left this morning but I'm taking my time leaving the Mountain.  In fact, I just finished a 5-mile run on the Trail of Tears and I'm sitting in Stirling's Coffee House having an afternoon cup of coffee.  Then, it's back to Paul's to load my truck and I'll be on the road.  

I'm just not ready to leave, though.  Not yet.  I want - no, I need - to soak up a little bit more of the magic, here, on campus and on the Mountain, that makes this place so special to me.  

It's my favorite place.  I don't really know why but it is.  

I love the University, obviously, and being on campus, around young people.  There's an energy, an optimism, not unlike what I feel when I'm on Belmont U.'s campus, or what I felt in the old days when I was a regular at Bongo Java. 

I love the weather on Monteagle Mountain, always 5 to 10 degrees cooler than in Nashville.  I love the fact that there are so many trails for me to run on or to be hiked.  The outdoors is such a big part of the Mountain.  I feel that, too.  

Maybe most of all, love the pace.  It's slower, for sure.  I feel relaxed here.  Contemplative.  Grateful.  I feel more in touch with myself, with nature, with my faith.  Being here clears the detritus out of my head and provides me with an opportunity to think, and to just be.  To be.  

I miss Jude and the boys but I needed the alone time I got Thursday and that I'm getting this afternoon.  I needed the solitude.  The quiet.  I needed it badly.  I got it and I'm grateful.