I’m
Dot Helling, from Montpelier.
Whenever
I leave and return to Vermont, the Green
Mountains wrap around me and
hug me.
I
have lived here permanently since the early 1970’s and cannot imagine another
place I could ever passionately call home.
While
I dread the gloomy days of winter and the ice more and more each year, spring
always rejuvenates my soul and makes me forget such pain.
When
I visit other places that are paradise, I find that unlike Vermont there is a higher price than bearing winters, eg.
isolation, high cost of living, large populations, traffic, dangerous political
unrest.
We
have a place that can still be saved and still offers us the joys of living
basic with nature. The smells, the views, the culture and our way of living are
all part of a package that I have yet to find anywhere else on this planet.
I consider myself a true Vermonter even though I was
not born here, no matter what Reverend Nutting has argued to the contrary. I
love Vermont!