Down by the Lakes...Into My Soul

Through serendipity, guide-directed daydreaming, divine intervention, generous angels, and a little moxie, I now call a spot on Round Lake in Trempealeau, WI, my home.

As a small child, I heard this place referred to as “Birch Acres”. It was part of a resort with several cabins, all remaining structures are now owned individually. By the time I was speaking about this is area myself, we just said, “down by the lakes”.

“Let’s go for a bike ride down by the lakes!" 

"Remember that night we almost drove into one of the lakes?!" 

"Hey - meet me down by the lakes!”

Unlike many of my other friends who grew up here, I went fishing “in the bottoms,” as Ma calls it, only a handful of times during my childhood. Just passing through on bike or by car, I did not explore or immerse myself in the Lakes District of Trempealeau much at all. “Down by the Lakes” seemed almost a foreign country to me, too wild to dream of actually living in. This is where all that daydreaming and divine intervention come into play.

You see, I absolutely love it down here. The people who actually live down here are of a different sort as well, and I love that too! Upon moving in, several of these generous souls shared their version of what life is like down here. They shared things I need to watch out for, waterway resources, animal sightings, among many other useful tidbits. I also love learning what titles local people with a little history use for different places around this area. Lone-Tree, a landing on The Big Marsh down here in the bottoms, or School Bus Point out by Marshland, WI. Oh, a historical-alternative cartographer's dream come true!

I feel a kinship with this land and waters, unlike anything I have ever experienced. I am learning my affinity to this place is likely connected to my family history, and I have much to excavate there - an endeavor connected to such wild tales…well, most will not believe them! That’s for another day, but I will share that I found that my great-great-grandfather, Antoine Grignon, had a camp not far from this area I now call home, where the Black River empties into the Mississippi. Grignon is very connected to those wild tales I hope to write about someday. 

I asked some of my new neighbors and friends about where exactly the Black River empties into the Mississippi, which is not as cut-and-dried as one might think! They got out old maps, which I used along with Wisconsin State Historical Society resources, and a hand-drawn map my father and I created, to pinpoint Antoine Grignon’s camp. My great-great-grandfather had a camp down-river from me, just another “Lone-Tree Length” from my house - amazing!

I know I was delivered to this place I now call home at just the right time in my life, to do that excavation through the means necessary for me to make sense of it all…through feeling, of course! What better way to unearth aspects of my roots I can only connect with through clairsentience, than placing me where my ancestors actually once walked?! So very blessed, am I!

Oh, the places we will go...all right here, Down by the Lakes and Into My Soul!

My Dark Night of the Soul Journey was necessary to reach where I am today. While I am still working through the residue of a lifetime of beliefs and behaviors that no longer serve me, I am so grateful to be the most authentic version of myself I have ever known. If you're curious, please join me at the beginning of this adventure of me. It has been a journey worth taking, for sure!