Places where you can breathe

Surroundings are important.  I am sitting in the Starbucks at Meijer’s just down the street from my house.  The noise of the blue carts on the concrete floor is deafening.  I miss the old quaint cafés in little towns like Saline.  Now it is all big box, cookie cutter and impersonal spaces.  I have been thinking about spaces recently and where I spend my time.

To this end, I have been doing an exercise where I picture myself in a calming and beautiful place.  For me, it is on the rocks by the ocean in Bar Harbor, Maine.  We went there on our honeymoon, and this picture is from that moment when I looked out over the sea and was filled with such peace and tranquility, it calmed me from the inside out.  The sun was shining, and sea gulls were flying overhead.  The rocks were warm from the sun, and the crashing of the waves was soothing music as they ebbed and receded from the rocky shore.

I have been going to that place several times a day in my mind.  Whenever I get stressed, or start feeling bad about myself.  Whenever I start playing those old tapes in my head. I go back to that sunny day on the beautiful ocean, where I felt so small looking out over the vast waters.  I felt free and happy.  I felt that I was in touch with my creator. I felt that I was in touch with myself.  I knew who I was and where I belonged: a beloved son of God in a beautiful, wild and big world.

Go find for yourself a place in nature. Sit there a minute. Breathe it in. And then take it with you. Visit it often.  And you will reap the benefits of God’s wonderful creation.