Although I do love wandering around in the woods right here in town and woods that I visit on travels–in Maine, California, New York, Oregon, oh anywhere–there is something really wonderful about taking the long view, as well.
For that, when I’m at home, I go to High Ridge. There’s a long hill to walk up and then at the top, long wide flat trails to follow, with tall grasses on either side. The long view, the broad vista, all those tall grasses–ahh. Very peaceful, especially on a clear-ish winter day. Blue skies, beautiful cloud formations, and the lovely sound of tall grasses rustling. Just beautiful!
You can take a trail down through a wooded area to a creek, with a rocky climb back up, and that is also very pretty. But sometimes I just want that wide open horizon all around me. While you do get a real perspective on the landscape at such a vantage point, it’s also possible to let one’s restless mind and spirit settle in such a meditative setting. Early in the morning or towards sunset, in the gathering light, it’s a magical quiet that can make your heart ache.
I feel the same sort of quiet magic at the ocean, with its steady back and forth, the unending long view, the broad vista. I know a guy who lives in Virginia. Driving along a tree-lined road with him, I commented how pretty it was with all those trees. He said he didn’t like it at all. He wanted a view, a panorama. He felt closed in by all those trees, day after day. I get that. There’s beauty in both. A time for both.
“This is the great adventure and the great discovery. No one can do it for us. Until we have reached the top of the mountain we cannot see in full glory the view that lies beyond; but glimpses of light illumine our path to the mountain.”- Juan Mascaro
“The more boundless your vision, the more real you are.”― Deepak Chopra, Life After Death
“It is a narrow mind which cannot look at a subject from various points of view.” ― George Eliot, Middlemarch
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Thanks for listening,
Kay
P.S. MerryThoughts is the name of my first book, out of print at the moment. The word is a British one, referring both to a wishbone and to the ritual of breaking the wishbone with the intention of either having a wish granted or being the one who marries first, thus the “merry thoughts.”