This backstory brings me to my travel story. In October of 2022, Mom was stationed in Asheville, North Carolina. I decided to follow my heart and visit her there. We absolutely loved it! I felt so blessed to be able to do this, to spend time with my Mom, and to see the Blue Ridge Mountains. This was before the hurricane Helene tragedy—a devastating tropical cyclone that caused catastrophic rainfall, leading to flooding in North Carolina and Tennessee.

“Most of what she knew, she’d learned from the wild. Nature had nurtured, tutored, and protected her when no one else would.” —Delia...

We spent the day forest bathing, shadows of sunlight dancing on our path. The smell of pine permeated as we breathed in the fresh air, washing it down with the water in bottles tied to our hips. We hiked the hills, leaves crunching beneath our feet, as we followed the sounds of water splashing down, searching for the promised cascades. Although we had visited before, Mom and I were fairly new to the area. We previously lived about an hour drive east of it. Together we bought