Well, it's been a while, and I hope you haven't yet forgotten me. I'm finally moved, but still only partially settled. The process has been grueling, and quite demanding mentally and physically, but well worth the toll on my not-so-quickly-recovering body. In any event, I've been finding some moments in the very early morning to begin to get back to my writing.
The view is different from here. Not just the external view, but the internal one as well. Geography does change things. We bring ourselves along wherever we go, but we mix with a new setting to form a different dynamic within ourselves, one that has never been formed before. It is true wherever we go, wherever we are.
The stress level alone, for example, increases, or diminishes; depending on the particular environment we might find ourselves in. For me, in this one, it has already begun to decrease dramatically. When I leave my home now, the route takes me down, and along, a beautiful meandering mountain road six miles into town. I do not have to drive through traffic and congestion to get someplace, nor do I on the return home. There are lakes near by, there is the river, and there are the creeks. There are trails for walking and riding. Unlike in the urban, or suburban centers, there is a natural order of things here. There is a sense of peace, of tranquility, of oneness with myself, with my own soul. There is a sense of being here, a sense of permanence, rather than the feeling of being waylaid on the way to someplace else.
Different environments create different responses in different people. This setting creates an optimistic one for me, and a thankful one. The happiness quotient is at optimum. I can breathe here, I can think, I can hear the proverbial sounds of silence. And when the silence is gone, it is only because the birds have joined together in song. A natural choir, in perfect harmony, and in perfect pitch, unlike my feeble efforts at communicating my own songs, there is no struggle in their sound.
I can walk with my wife, and with my dog, Chica, on my own land, on the trails that run from the house, past the barn, by small green meadow’s, through lush and beautiful forest, connecting me to earth, and sky, like tall pines have connected the two for ages. I wish each of you could share this with me.
The view is different here. From inside myself,
and through my own window.
