Take notes. Great piece. I knew we were in trouble when the Hurricane blew the front door off. I live at the top of a mountain in the Appalachian Blue Ridge. I have survived 22 hurricanes. But nothing like this one. The water was coming at us sideways. There was no time to say goodbye to my tree. I love all the other oaks. But this one was their mother. Where the squirrels lived. Acorns everywhere. It’s just grief. I sit in stillness. It’s a wound. This mama lived through Edinburgh burning down. The Gregorian calendar. Sweden attacked by Denmark. The treaty of London signed. The poet, John Dryden, died. Massachusetts passed a law: Jesuits & Popish Priests. Making a finding that Roman Catholic clerics have attempted to incite American Indians into a rebellion against the Crown. Deposed King James II of England (James VII of Scotland) dies in exile, at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye in France. The first regular English-language national newspaper, The Daily Courant, begins publication on Fleet Street in the City of London; it covers only foreign news. Russian troops besiege the Swedish fortress of Nöteborg, and capture it after 15 days. She lived through all of this and the War Between the States. Every day, I could gaze upon something larger than myself. Something that came from the dirt like I did. I am not quite up to replacing that front door.