Be the Change

Nurture your connections to the people around you.
-

10 January 2008

{Remembering Meredith Hope}

How is it that I can love someone I have never met? I have spent the last 9 days in front of a computer screen grieving for someone I didn't even know, Meredith Hope Emerson. I have addictively returned to the internet many times a day (more than my employer would like to know) to read CNN updates about her disappearance and the case developing about the suspect. Meredith's angelic, smiling face, unlike any I have ever seen in the media, speaks to me. Her pictures speak a thousand words about who she was inside and how she spent her 24 years on this Earth. From what I have learned, Meredith was a beautiful person, full of life, love and vivaciousness, and was loved by so many, even strangers. She loved to hike with with her furry best bud, Ella, for the freedom, solitude and peacefulness it gave her. I understand this because I am a woman who hikes with my best 4 legged furry, Ember. There is nothing in this world to compare what it’s like to be out in the wilderness with my lil Embeeee. Meredith wants us to learn to play more, love more, appreciate more - spend more time with our puplers, with our loved ones, with the mountains. So, I will. And I will be careful, but not fearful. May I meet you on top of some mountaintop someday Meredith, with 4 pitter patters right behind you.

Information about the Meredith Emerson Memorial Hike

8 comments:

  1. Heartfelt reflections, Meredith was a kindred spirit that will be in our memories forever. Her and Ella will meet on that "Rainbow Bridge", someday!

    Glenn Adams
    www.glennindawson.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. An Elegy by Winton Porter
    January 2008

    Out on the trail, when a comrade falls, a trail angel rises.
    Meredith, whose kind and loving spirit was cruelly taken from all those who knew and loved her, has joined the ranks of trail angels.
    She will forever be our guide.

    Because trail angels dance along the path of peace and joy forever.
    Because trail angels watch over those who merely want to walk forever.
    Those who simply want to live.
    Those who want to live simply.
    And beautifully as Meredith did.
    Merediths light once illuminated the path of hundreds of friends and family members as well as among the many, many she touched along the graceful trail of her life.
    The light Meredith brought us has not been extinguished.
    It has risen.
    It now illuminates the path of millions
    Across our nation.
    Around the world.
    And as her light rises, we come to know its source.
    A source inextinguishable.
    An inner source.
    It came from Merediths compassion.
    Her kindness.
    Her love of outdoors.
    Her love of animals.
    It now fires our love.
    Our compassion.
    Our resolve to live better lives.
    Kinder lives.
    It warms us, consoles us, unites us here and now.
    And as her light rises,
    It ignites in us the good of our natures.
    It reveals to us the beauty of these mountains.
    It fires in us a renewed joy for living, for those around us, for the walks we share today.
    Her light reminds us not to wait but to love while we still can.
    Now….Stop.…Listen.
    Hush and truly listen.
    Hear the drums?
    Feel them on the wind?
    Hear the human tales of triumph and sadness that echo through these vast and ancient mountains?
    These are human tales, bouncing off the cliffs,
    Reverberating among the high tree lines,
    Following the deep gaps.
    Filling our hearts.
    Separateness is an illusion, my friends.
    There is no me.
    There is no you.
    There is only We.
    We of this earth.
    We the one.
    I am you.
    You are me.
    Together , we are bound by common experience:
    Love. Life. Hope. Joy. Sorrow. Pain. Memory.
    Meredith Emerson is you.
    You are Meredith Emerson.
    Follow her light.
    It will guide you well.
    Remember.
    Out on the trail, when a comrade falls, a trail angel rises...

    Wolfscratch: May she rest in peace...

    ReplyDelete
  3. For Inspiration Go to:
    http://music.aol.com/video/vince-gill-go-rest-high-on-that-mountain/vince-gill/playlist/go-rest-high-on-the-mountain/187127/1104198

    Meredith Hope Emerson... a kindred Spirit...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Meredith Hope Emerson, loving, caring, an important part of nature, She and her dog Ella, loved the mountains and outdoors. Where the rhodendrum grow , the hemlock stand tall, and the Eagle soars, Just sitting marvelling at the appalacians; so majestic with splendor, She and Ella, playing, hiking, and bonding with love, The forest, inhabitants; birds, and deer meander, The meadows in Bucktown, will take your breath, and wild azaleas bloom, The sun rising high, the forest comes alive, the honey bees and Butterflys. Black bears just lumbering along, the birds singing mother nature’s favorite song. Hikers come from all over to hike the AT, some hiking it short, some hiking it long, She and Ella thought of this as a paradise, for whatever it’s worth, When they were one, with the earth, my only request is, and I pray, That they meet again on that endless Rainbow Bridge, entering Heaven , Someday. In nature she’ll be missed, by family, friends, and loved ones. As our somber nation prays, she was my neighbor for just Four Days

    ReplyDelete
  5. Steve Segars: Firefighter: Gwinnett Co. Fire Dept; Boyfriend of Meredith, calls in to The Bert Show; Atl, GA.

    Truly Heartwrenching....
    GO TO:

    http://www.ajc.com/news/mplayer/m/56148

    ReplyDelete
  6. wild Aurora, thanks for letting me post on your blog.
    Some positive news to share for you and others. A great idea sparked by Meredith's spirit and love of the outdoors.

    http://www.righttohikeinc.com/
    aLso:
    : Jennifer Pharr:
    This is Jennifer Pharr. This summer she will be challenging the Womens Appalachian Trail Record in honor of a fallen female hiker.
    http://sherpajohn.blogspot.com/2008/05/interview-jennifer-pharr_28.html


    Glenn Adams: Meredith, was a fighter, and she still is....

    ReplyDelete
  7. This is a beautiful tribute to Mereidith. You have put into words much of what I felt when I first heard of this tragic event. I too love to hike with my furry companion and always felt safe doing so here in these beautiful mountians of NE GA...this event had an enormous impact on the way I do things now...I am still working on overcoming the fear. Thanks for these comments.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Jennifer Pharr-Davis, feels Meredith's Kindred Spirit as many across the Nation and World does.
    She has channeled these emotions in a positive manner by devoting this challenge to her Memory...

    *******************
    Not Backing Down:


    by Jennifer Pharr

    My phone rang on January 3rd.

    “Hey, Jen. Glad you picked up. I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

    “Yeah, I’m fine.” I reassured my friend. “What’s up?”

    “Well, I heard a report on the news that a 24-year-old female was missing after hiking alone in the Southern Blue Ridge and, well…I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

    That phone call marked the moment that Meredith Emerson began to impact my life.

    Within the past four months, the deaths of Irene Bryant, Cheryl Hodges Dunlap, and especially Meredith Emerson have deeply penetrated my thoughts and emotions. Like all three women, I love hiking. I have hiked over 5,000 miles in the past three years, and 95 percent of those steps have been taken alone as a solo hiker.

    When Irene Bryant, who lived 15 minutes from my hometown of Hendersonville, N.C., was found murdered on a popular trail 20 miles away, I was sickened by how close the event was to me, both physically and emotionally. I remember second-guessing my upcoming day and overnight hikes in the area, and I particularly remember a phone conversation with my concerned dad who begged me to be extra cautious of people and surroundings while hiking in the local parks.

    Then, two months later when I heard Cheryl Hodges Dunlap’s body had been recovered in a Florida national forest, I felt violated and angered that someone would prey on a single female hiking alone. The event further confirmed my recent decision not to hike the 1,400-mile Florida Trail alone this winter.

    But when the story of Meredith Emerson’s tragic death began to surface, I couldn’t verbalize my emotions. I didn’t know how to feel. The only thing I could do was cry. For a full week after her body was recovered, I would turn on my computer every morning and cry over a new article. I cried over her disappearance, and then I cried over her confirmed death. I cried over the touching sentiments of Meredith’s friends and family in the wake of her passing. I cried over her obituary and the many internet memorials that testified to a life well lived, but one that was cut short. I cried for Meredith, I cried for her family, and—unknowingly—I cried for myself.

    Meredith’s bio is eerily similar to my own. We were the same age, the same marital status, and the same race. We were recent college graduates with similar degrees. We both loved wine and foreign culture, four-legged creatures, and good books. We both loved creation and the Creator to the point that both of us volunteered in a Presbyterian Church nursery during our college years. On top of that, we both loved the woods, loved to hike, and felt safe and experienced in the wilderness. Reading Meredith’s obituary was like staring death in the face. The realization of her fate shook me because I could not separate what happened to her from what could or may still happen to me.

    I don’t remember school psychology so I don’t know what stages of grief I went through. All I know is that initially I felt scared. I felt scared to hike, scared to pursue what I love. I felt anxious on my next trail run and paranoid on my next hike. I even flipped out when a neighbor of mine unexpectedly approached me in the dark. As someone not easily upset or scared, I was now constantly looking over my shoulder.

    Eventually, though, my fear evolved into anger. How could someone carry out such a hateful and twisted act? What kind of deranged background and mental disorder does this killer have that would cause him to do such evil? How dare he end such a beautiful life with his sinister motives? And why Meredith? Why this gracious, loving woman in the prime of her youth? Why not someone else? Why not me?

    I’m not sure why Meredith experienced this painful departure, but what I do know is that in her passing I witnessed sincere sorrow for of this 24-year old hiker. Meredith’s memorial page on the internet was bombarded with messages and prayers from men and women, young and old, East-Coasters, West-Coasters, and residents everywhere in between. The page had posts from animal lovers, tree huggers, and people who simply recognized a shining star snuffed out by the evil of the world. After several weeks of reading about and praying for Meredith Emerson, I now carry peace that she lived life to the fullest, that she loved and was dearly loved, and that she will never be forgotten.

    Although I sometimes feel guilty that fate called Meredith home early when it just as easily could have been me, I have found peace and purpose in attempting to keep her memory alive and her passion ablaze. This summer I am thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail for myself, for Cheryl, for Irene, and especially for Meredith. I am thru-hiking as a statement to any human predators who disturb the serenity, peace, and safety of the woods. Such men cannot take stifle my love of nature and solitude; they can only make me appreciate it more.

    I am hiking the trail north to south this year. Providentially, on my second to last day of the trail, I will pass over Blood Mountain, the site of Meredith’s last hike. There I will pause, pray, and remember Meredith Emerson. I will sit on the mountain and whisper words into the breeze, and the words will be carried away to where Meredith can hear them. I will thank her for her courage and her example. I will tell her how she inspired me to hike, and more importantly, I will tell her how she inspired me to live. I will remind her that she hasn’t been forgotten, and that she never will be forgotten. Then, I will stand up and do exactly what Meredith would want me to do – I’ll keep hiking.

    C/P by Wolfscratch

    ReplyDelete

'