One of the answers to the question that has been on my mind lately is about finding ones happy place. You know the one I’m talking about. It’s that physical space where you go when you need to decompress, get yourself centered after a busy day, or escape a stressful situation. It comes in many forms. For some it is a room in their house. Others it is church or maybe and AA meeting. For a vast majority of humans, it is a physical space outside. It’s no surprise that the outdoors tends to be a place of solace. After all, human kind has been around some 200,000 years. The industrial world with it’s synthetic, mechanical sounds and smells has only been around about 200 years, a mere one tenth of one percent of the time man has walked the earth. That’s some serious evolutionary influence.
We crave the organic sounds and smells of an outdoor space. That is why we buy candles that claim to smell like mountain air or sea breeze or dew kissed leaves. You don’t need a $12.00 candle for that, just go outside!
Back to my answer. When you move about the country volunteering for different parks you accumulate a library of those outdoor spaces that make you feel grounded and whole. It’s really cool when you stop and think about it. My connection to the outdoors started at a very young age. I grew up in a house dropped in the middle of 5 acres of dense White Oak timber with a ravine that surrounded ¾ quarters of the property. The other quarter was the dirt road. I had two sisters younger than me 5 and 7 years to be exact. As the oldest, 5 years removed from the other two, I existed it this weird no man’s land of birth order. I was who I was. The other two were babies and constantly referred to as ‘the girls’ by my mother. I was a girl too, but in my parents mind I was separate from the other two. As a result, I felt very isolated from my immediate family and in the midst of my mom trying to cope with two high maintenance toddlers and my dad busy running the family business for grandpa I had a lot of time on my hands when I was young. I retreated to the woods on a regular basis to get away from the busyness of the household and try to figure out my place in the world. My favorite spot was a big boulder left behind by the glaciers, on the north side of our property right next to the creek. I would sit there and dig up cool glacial rocks, listen the water gurgling over the stones, the birds and squirrels fussing about and the occasional car barreling down our road. When I was in the outdoors alone I knew who I was. Fast forward 40 some years, three careers, two kids and I find myself back in my place where I know who I am. Smack dab in the middle of the natural world.
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My view as I write[/caption]I have always had a love affair with Colorado and its wild, remote, unbridled ways. I fell completely in love with the Wildlife Refuge we worked for our first winter. Upon returning there for a week on our way to South Texas last winter I validate my love for the place. It wasn’t puppy love that first winter. Those 7 days last fall were special at Balcones. Here at Saylorville I sit on my patio and type after a hectic day at my part time job and feel the breeze move over me, the smells of the timber and lake. Listen to the Red Bellied Woodpecker call out from the tree behind my motorhome, crickets chirping and my tabby cat Buster whine because his lead can’t reach me. All organic sounds that calm my soul and make me feel good. When you live in the campground you get that whenever you want it.
So, the answer? If you find your center in the outdoors and you travel around doing it, your ‘happy place’ is lots of places not just one place. The number of those places grows with your time on the road. That’s the best part for this tree hugger.
Until next time…
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