My Happy Place

I spent the first week of this month in the mountains with a bunch of teenagers. We had no cell service, no internet, and no TV…and no one complained. As a matter of fact, I am almost certain that everyone who went on the trip wants to go back.  I’ve spent the week since I’ve been home trying to decide what I want to record about that week.  I’ve decided to start light. The trip was fun and refreshing.

 

 

I live in the city. Not big enough to be considered the “big city”, but big enough. While I do enjoy having seemingly unlimited choices of places to eat, places to shop, and options for where to buy my gas, I don’t enjoy the pace of it all. I don’t enjoy the limitless opportunities to “go do something”. It was nice to go for walks while on our trip. It was nice to be physically exhausted and mentally refreshed rather than the other way around…if only for a week.

 

 

I am overwhelmed by the beauty of the mountains. I don’t want to just see them, I want to feel them, touch them, and breathe them in. I love the sound of the wind rustling through the trees so dense that raindrops don’t reach the ground. I love watching the sunlight dance down through the dense green foliage. I am fascinated by fallen rocks that are taller than any man, and find myself wondering how they came to rest in their current location. I love the carpet-y feel of the moss that seems to cover every possible surface. I love the utter green-ness of it all.  I love the smell of black soil rich with decades of decayed leaves. I love the sound of the birds. I could sit on a rock for hours and just look and listen and try to soak in as much of all this as possible. This is my happy place... where everything is right and good and peaceful and beautiful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My very favorite parts of visiting the mountains are the waterfalls. They amaze me…consume me. Their beauty and raw power are more than I can put to words. I can't accurately describe the joy I feel sitting at the bottom of one, or the thrill of climbing a path that leads to the top. Hiking up a mountain, following the sound of water crashing over rock, and then stepping out to a grand fall is wonderful to me.

 

I am eternally grateful for the opportunity to spend time away from the hustle and bustle of my everyday life. I want to somehow claim a tiny bit of that peacefulness here. I want to create a "Happy Place" here at home.  I’ll let you know how it goes.