Restoration

One of my favorite writers, the auto journalist Peter Egan, wrote this:

“One thing I’ve discovered over the past three years on these short weekend trips is that the lakes don’t get exponentially bluer as you get farther from home.”

He wrote this in his Cycle World Leanings column many years ago. He was obviously talking about trips and adventures that can be had close to home. I have to agree with him on this point as we have done a number of those trips as of late.

I’ve found the need to get away from what is going on these days has become a bit more imperative. The news and changes that are happening all around us can become overwhelming and all consuming. This can become so oppressive both mentally and physically that a change of pace and environment becomes necessary. Time for a trip, a getaway!

The first thing I recommend these days is turn off the electronics! Next, find someplace beautiful that feeds your mind and your soul and immerse yourself in it! Let it flow through you and take away all the heaviness, sorrow, depression, anger, all the “bad” stuff and let it fill you with peace, with calm, with beauty. With love. Do this with the ones you love! Rejuvenate!

This is exactly what my wife and I did the other week. Just a short three day trip in the mountains visiting old and new places. No schedule, no agenda. We filled our time with exploring, visiting small towns and high places. Soaking in the beauty of nature via hiking, biking or just sitting and enjoying the views and the company!

We experienced beautiful cold mornings with the sun just touching the tops of the mountains while we shivered in the cool of the valley floor listening to the sound of the river beside us as we bicycled along the path of discovery.

We smelled the cold mountain air with the mix of morning dew, wild flowers and freshness that only cool, early mornings high in the mountains can bring.

We enjoyed stunning sunsets as the last rays of the sun streaked across the cobalt blue sky, snuggling together for warmth and love not wanting to go inside quite yet.

We enjoyed the midday sun as it warmed everything around us! We watched the afternoon storm clouds roll in as they moved across the mountain tops while down below the aspens and conifers were looking forward to the rain they would bring.

We saw green meadows and forests of aspen trees with their quaking leaves, hearing the sound only they can make. We saw tall conifers and so many wild flowers we lost count.

We saw people taking in the beauty and enjoying the small towns and all they had to offer. We met new friends and had great conversations.

We saw distant, craggy, high mountain peaks soaring many thousands of feet in the air and wondered what adventures and beauty they had stored within them.

We saw other peaks that brought back memories of hikes and high alpine lakes, of places we had been and fell in love with.

We found joy and peace and contentment in all this. We filled our souls anew and emptied ourselves of all the pain and stress of the would outside this place.

I encourage all of you to find your place of beauty, find your place where you can watch your worries flow away and be filled with a peace and love that runs deep into your soul and fills you with joy and contentment.

I ask one thing. Share you joy, share your contentment, share your love. These things build and lift us and carry us all to new heights! Leave the hate, leave the anger, leave the division, leave all of it behind. We, all of us, are traveling on this little blue dot in a distant arm of this vast universe. Let us live this adventure together, explore together and find the beauty that is all around us and in us and share it with one another!

As a singer / song writer, who loved these mountains once said, “Peace my friends”.