White Noise

It was definitely time to get out of the craziness for a minute; time to go country - REAL country... Mountain Goat Country!!  We live in a small town, and our town happens to be growing like a weed.  The commute to work is getting as bad as traffic in L.A. & Seattle - places we lived and worked in eons ago.  People here are certain to become Road Rage certified as the current growth continues like it has the past few years.  It was time for an escape!

We went to a place over 10,000 feet above sea level.  We went to a place where there were street signs cautioning to watch for cows that might be passing over the road (and not necessarily at the cattle guards), signs hollering at us to be careful, to slow down.  That busy world we left behind; jobs that pay too little and demand so much, recurring bills that keep circling back to the mailbox month after month, the never-ending list of projects around the house that need to be finished - we happily left it all behind.  In six glorious days and five incredible nights we lived with serenity, relaxation and rejuvenation and were able to forget it all.

"Their back yard just keeps on getting bigger." he said to me as we walked along the rapidly cascading, thunderous river with our two dogs.  We'd been camping for a number of days and were enjoying the quiet atmosphere & exploring our way through the brush and forest all of which surrounded our new found makeshift home.  We were joined by friends a couple days into the adventure; fun conversation, eating delicious catch-of-the-day fish, making s'mores that exploded in your mouth...definitely laughing... having all sorts of fun!

 

Living without TV, internet, social media, phone calls, text messages - and traffic - is practically revolutionary these days!  No riots of the mind, just clean and clear thoughts like the cool-headed, mirror-like lake down the hill from where we stayed.  

That same lake feeds a tranquil river which is where we found ourselves walking beside one blissful afternoon.  Slowly meandering down the needled floor we discovered fallen soldiers dressed in ferns and watched birds soaring high above.  The river with its sloping muddy shore, blades of grass swaying slowly as the water quietly lapped by was as mesmerizing as sitting by the crackling campfire each and every night.  We were awestruck by the vertically jagged mountainous terrain, yet all we could hear was the white noise.  The swooshing, bubbling river hustling to its new destination which created an intense orchestra of sounds and was pure rapture... to have found peaceful seclusion where wordless noise occupies the mind, body & soul is like Heaven.  The incredible white noise called nature - a perfect retreat!