My An Arkie's Faith column from the June 5, 2024, issue of The Polk County Pulse. “Wake up, wake up,” my sister-in-law hollered up the stairs to the loft. “I hate waking you, but you must see this.” I sat up in bed and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. Looking out the windows that stretched across the entire end of the cabin, I saw an incredible sight. It was the last week of September 2020, and we were staying at the Wildwood Cabin high atop a mountain north of Ponca, Arkansas. Perched on a hillside, so high up on stilts that the deck is in the treetops, the cabin seems straight out of a fairy tale. Oversized windows provide a sweeping view of the upper Buffalo River wilderness. The sun was coming up as I lay in bed, my heart filled with a profound sense of awe at the sight of the Buffalo River valley. The orange glow, like a majestic canopy, spread over the valley stretching below the cabin. White clouds filled the valleys, and it looked like a vast, white ocean stretching ...
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