Where I want to be
Richmond Hill, ON, August 2007 [Click to embiggen]
Maybe it's the writer in me, but I cherish periods of peace and quiet. I hope you don't think I'm antisocial when I say that I often look forward to being alone. Not all the time, of course - I think I'd go insane - but an occasional break from our hurry-up-and-hurry-some-more world is a nice way to restore balance.
Getting away is usually a simple proposition for me: I get on my bike, point it toward the edge of town and keep spinning my legs until I no longer hear the traffic. Often, I'll seek out places just like the one in the photo above. I'll park the velo and spend a few minutes just absorbing the silence of the place. These are the times when I can actually hear myself think.
Before long, I have to return to reality, of course. But there's always a next time.
Your turn: How do you get away? What do you learn about yourself when you do?
When I need to be alone, I go to the lake at Centennial Park. It's where I'd go each evening, the last month my mom was in the hospital, and I needed to be somewhere between hospital and the sounds of home. I'd sit by the lake and watch the sun set (it was June-July) and watch the ducks and their babies frolick in the waning evening. I'd pretty much stay there till closing, despite darkness and probable unsafe conditions.
ReplyDeleteNow, it's where I go. I go there when I need to be alone, I go there when I need to feel my mother. I take my iPod (back then, it was my Discman) and either read while listening to music, listen to an audio book, or just take pictures - sometimes mental pictures, sometimes with my camera.
Often, I am "visited" by a heron or two, and the ducks provide smiles and company. It's a place in the middle of the busy suburb where I feel like I'm in a marsh all alone with Nature. It's peaceful, refreshing, and rejuvenating.
Sometimes I bring writing and work on pieces in progress or start new ones. Sometimes I just ponder. I'm not sure I learn much about myself except that I am good company and solitude is not a bad thing.
There are other "alone" places for me - less accessible. The lookout on Mount Royal. The Pointe Claire Yacht Club (daytime, mid-week) where I can sit and watch the boats, or anywhere along the Lakeshore where I watch the water and listen to it lapping at the shore.
Mostly, I try to let my mind wander free of the day's events, and try to let myself free associate. Sometimes I just reminisce.
The thing I learn most is that everyone NEEDS time alone. I'm alone in the house when everyone's at work and school/camp, but that's not the same; it's taking that time to go alone, be somewhere outside one's reality.
Julia Cameron ("The Artist's Way") suggests an artist's date once a week. I should start taking those again. I've done museums, country roads, photo shoots, galleries, boutiques... There's a whole wide world out there to take myself to...
Lengthily yours,
Lissa
That's the kind of place I'd like to be in right now, Carmi. It looks peaceful.
ReplyDeleteWhen I want to get away, and I can't take a vacation or be gone long, I get into my car and go grab a bite to eat and read a book, with no cell phone or radio! It is an indulgence I look forward to several times a week.
With two small kids, I don´t get away much at all. My alone time comes when my hubby is off playing a gig at night and the kids are asleep. Then I curl up on the couch with my sewing things and watch Supernatural DVDs. ;)
ReplyDelete(and, yes, you can add me to your blogroll. :D Thanks!)
Often I find peace not alone but when we are out fishing as a family. I also like to go out in the woods and camp, nothing more peaceful than surrounding myself with nature to ground myself.
ReplyDeleteGetting away doesn't happen very much here, but I don't think I'd like it if it did.
ReplyDeleteI just can't do solitude. I bore myself. Really.
My favorite thing is to stay home alone and send everyone else out. I like to putter from thing to thing and have no real plan. For every two hours with people, I need four alone.
ReplyDeleteSince moving from the city to the country I get a lot more peace and quiet, especially the nights. But my mental escape has always been in books, and what better "candy store" than Barnes and Noble. I now live 40 miles from the nearest BN so visits are less often, but longer and more expensive! I was just there today and left my fingerprints on many more books than I actually brought home.
ReplyDeleteLike Lissa, I am a student of Julia Cameron but haven't been doing the weekly artist's dates. With the beauty of nature here I need to get back to the weekly dates just to explore the lakes and canyons of the Ozarks. A day on the lake with a good book and some tunes would be my idea of Heaven!