Slow Road Home by Frederick Blair First, Fred First
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(Paperback)
- Pub. Date: December 2006
- 232pp
- Sales Rank: 359,427
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Product Details
- Pub. Date: December 2006
- Publisher: Goose Creek Press
- Format: Paperback, 232pp
- Sales Rank: 359,427
- ISBN-13: 9780977939510
- ISBN: 0977939510
- Edition Number: 2
Synopsis
Some of us long for belonging to the land, for roots in particular and special places where, for reasons usually beyond our knowing, we resonate with the landscape.
For those who have lived other places only to discover home in the Blue Ridge Mountains, there is a mystery and allure that draws them there. This pull First describes as a "magnetic resonance in our bones that pulls us toward an altitude, latitude and slant of sun that simply feels right for us like no place else." For such souls "the mountains hold a nutrient that we can not live without."
At fifty four, the author left his profession in healthcare to explore where it was that he lived; for a time, this became what he did for a living. The daily discipline of intentional immersion in small wonders close at hand ultimately grew to become the story of the book, a celebration of one special mountain place that seems to have been waiting all his life for the author to find, to know and to share.
Slow Road Home ~ a Blue Ridge Book of Days was published by Goose Creek Press in April, 2006. The author's background as naturalist, teacher and photographer inform this collection of more than a hundred lyrical essays and stories, many originally shared with weblog readers in the author's weblog, Fragments from Floyd.
Slow Road Home is a book to read slowly as it unfolds through the seasons. Readers have commented that having read through once, they intend to read it again. Another reader states that Slow Road stays by her bedside where "it just makes me thankful and at peace, and I go to bed looking forward to what the next morning will bring." If you live in or long for the southern mountains, the pagesof this book will remind you of the unique sights, sounds and smells of Virginia's Appalachian hills and home.
Fred First is a physical therapist who practices part time at a clinic near Radford, Virginia and teaches as adjunct faculty for the biology department at Radford University. He lives on the headwaters of the Roanoke River in a remote part of Floyd County, Virginia, with his wife Ann and yellow lab, Tsuga.
Customer Reviews
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Southwest Virginia, Floyd County Va and Mountain Lifeby RCMIII
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August 22, 2009: Fred First writing was introduced to me by my daughter who owns a B&B in the Blue Ridge Parkway in Floyd County. On Father's Day in June 2009 she gave me an autographed copy of Fred Frist's second book "What We Hold In Our Hands a slow road reader" and I could not put it down. I purchased his first book "Slow Road Home" and now I have finished both books. I have bought several copies of his first book to share with friends and family. Both of the books are full of information about Floyd County, the Mountains. The book as entertaining and easy to read with short stories about Fred Frist's life in SWVA.
I Also Recommend: Slow Road Home.
A reviewerby Anonymous
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July 10, 2007: There is an old saying that when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. In Fred First's case, when he was ready to learn new lessons, he let Nature be his teacher. What he discovered about himself and his connection to his new home in the Blue Ridge Mountains will strike a familiar chord in everyone who has reached the point in life where our goals leave us unfulfilled. In Fred's book, Slow Road Home, he discusses finding himself with no purpose in life after he left his position as Physical Therapist. His wife, Ann, had a job and was supporting them both, and he faced the challenge that many face in these changing times, that of creating an existence which includes a means of earning a living and at the same time discovering a worthwhile purpose. It becomes apparent as you read this fascinating book, that Fred develops a philosophy for his life as he discovers himself. It is an account of how he set out to find wonder and meaning in the myriad details of life in his valley and in the long string of apparently random events that led them to this place they call, 'Here's Home'. His weblog journal, Fragments from Floyd, becomes a tapestry of his days chronicling his angsts, his sometimes humorous efforts to overcome them, and his epiphanies. He applies his considerable analytical abilities to the problems he faces, his discoveries about life in the valley along Goose Creek and the bliss he finds observing the infinite details of life on a calm summer day. He takes us through several turning of the seasons, the loss of a beloved canine companion, and the tenderly funny incidents that make up married life on Goose Creek. At the very least, this book could be considered a record of his love for the place he and Ann call home. For the rest of us, the greatest value in Fred's book may lie in the example he sets in so many ways of observing life closely, working to understand what he has observed, while discovering in himself the strength to persevere and share his discoveries with others. Inspiring, evocative, and moving, with many moments of dry humor. This book satisfies in many ways.
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