I Found a Poem in the Mountains—and It Changed Me
A sacred guestbook, a legacy of love, and the longing that still lingers.
Inside a worn wooden guestbook—its spine bound with twine and its pages softened by time—I found a secret poem, hidden in plain sight.
Handwritten in blue ink, dated November 20th, 1957, and tucked gently between signatures and family photographs, it sat waiting for new eyes like mine—ones that might shed tears at it’s beautiful scrawled words.
The book belongs to the Bruner homestead, a hidden mountain dream, quietly passed down the generations and nestled deep in the Colorado woods—wild with secret crystal streams, golden marigolds, and the kind of quiet that feels sacred.
From the early 1900s onward, this place has held generations of Colorado history—capturing the spirit of dreamers who ventured out West for fame, fortune and a better life. And one particular dreaming family: the Brueners.
The guestbook is carved with the words Westcreek Visitors (see photos below), but this isn’t just a log of names. It’s a love story to family, hard work, the honesty of heartache and a spirit that endures.
The poem, titled Fifty Years and More, was penned by Carl Bruner—perhaps the original homesteader, or his son—and it stopped me mid-breath.
I read the lines and felt something ache inside me. A tender heartache. Because the words didn’t just recall a life shared; they honored it. With reverence, with tenderness. With truth and pain. It beautifully captured a life lived—
The dreams you dreamed: the plans you made:
The house you built: the bills you paid:
Those two lines undid me.
This poem is more than nostalgia. It’s a mirror—showing us the sacred in the small moments, the ones our modern eyes so often glance over these days. This poem is the holiness of hard-earned love. The legacy of ordinary days, lived with intention.
Below, I’ve included the full poem and several pages from the guestbook itself.
I hope it stirs something in you, too.
November 20th, 1957
Fifty Years And More
#
Fifty years is pretty long you know.
Fifty years—and what have you to show?
#
Romance in youth and beauty started
Now love—gray with age and not once parted:
#
Your first born son—and then three more
Two girls God took—but left the four:
#
The old grant-six and blown-out tires.
The fishing trips and picnic fires:
#
The two by four that blacked an eye:
When truth will out—what is a lie?
#
Croup, Chicken-pox and Scarlet Fever too:
And missing your bills when they were due:
#
The times out hunting with your boys:
The Christmas times—the food and noise:
#
The years when budgets did not tally:
Waiting twenty years for beef prices to rally:
#
Lunches in sacks—working early and late.
Washing on a scrub board, until your back would break.
#
High school football with yell and shout:
And your own boy for three days knocked out:
#
Four boys through college with “narry a flunk”:
Who gets the credit for the “brains and spunk”?
#
Four sons married to girls fun and true:
And never a divorce, how’s that for you?
#
Nine grandchildren all healthy and fine:
Speaks pretty well of how you spent your time.
#
The dreams you dreamed: the plans you made:
The house you built: the bills you paid:
#
So in retirement, are you all “played out”?
No—you just move mountains round about.
#
For a place where others can relax and say,
“It’s the grandest place for the grandkids to play.”
#
Fifty hundred rhymes would not do
To list the good things around you two.
#
Fifty years and you have lots to show.
Fifty years and more to come you know.
#
—By Carl Bruner
Conclusion
Somewhere between the ink and the silence, this poem reminded me: a meaningful life isn’t built in grand gestures, but in the quiet, repeated choice to love, to stay, to tend.
May we all leave behind a story—scribbled in the margins of time—that speaks not just of what we did, but how we loved.
And may we, like Carl, make our lives into poems worth passing on.
Wildflower Roots
A behind-the-scenes look at what’s next—and connection as we walk this healing journey together, through sunshine and storms.
💛 What’s next:
Tuesday, July 1st (paid post): Grounded & Wild Summer Series, Week #5: A Reset & Pause - We’re half way through our Grounded & Wild summer series! And this calls for a pause, a check-in and a break from the flow. 4th of July is also a busy day for many—so we’ll be doing a light post. The next few weeks of our summer series, we’ll be turning things around as we look towards August and Fall right around the corner with the shedding of what was and renewal.
Thursday, July 4th (free post): The Mountains Are Calling and I Cannot Go—When Dreams Are in Limbo - This week, I’m sharing something raw: a poem and story from the ache of standing in the messy middle—the space between heartbreak and hope, between the life we long for and the one we’re still trying to rebuild. If you’ve ever found yourself in that in-between, I hope these words offer you companionship and light.
📝Updates:
Come join us in this 8-week summer series Grounded & Wild, a nervous system recalibration for the overwhelm and craziness of summer. These posts offer a space to come and exhale all the stress, to connect with other readers and to unburden yourself. Running every Tuesday for eight weeks, click here to join and jump in at anytime. Bonus: you also gain access not only to the entire series but all paid Wildflowers Grow essays in this exclusive private bookshelf. Sink into your favorite comfy chair, curl up with a warm cup of tea and indulge in some “me time” reading this summer.
Grounded & Wild Summer Series
Here’s where we’ve been so far! Subscribe to access this whole series and more—all of which include quality audio voiceovers. 🎧
Week 1 - Rewiring Your Nervous System to Feel Joy, Even in the Chaos, Summer chaos can be a threat to our nervous system—how do we unwind the coil of anxiety, the mental load, and the weight of expectations that tell us we must hold it all together?
Week 2 - How Summer Chaos Affects the Neurodivergent Brain, Nervous system recalibration—what hinders us and what helps
Week 3 - A Somatic Recalibration for Summer Overwhelm, Finding peace not just in your mind—but in your body and soul
Week 4 - Softness as Resistance: Letting Yourself Be Tender in a Demanding World, Why your tenderness might be the most grounded and wild thing you offer this season
Week 5-8 - (releasing weekly)
💬 Join the conversation: Did any part of the poem speak to you? Do you have a story you’ve turning into a poem or a poem that inspires you?
What a special surprise to find 😌
So much beauty in the simple things