My Favorite Place

This is where I spent my afternoon today. It takes quite a while to get to, but is always worth the time and trouble. I consider it a "thinking place", meaning for me a place I head to when I have some serious thinking to do.
No ipods, no cel phones, sometimes a book, but usually just peace and quiet to lead me into thoughtful, and incredibly re-energizing, meditation. It's rarely more crowded than it is in this picture, taken earlier today. Even in the summer; there's just so much else to see, that even scenic spots like this one fall to the competition, and dreamers like myself can usually find an hour or two to ourselves to just plain think.
I used to take it for granted that everyone enjoyed their own version of going to a "thinking place", to invest spare time to sort through the week that was, or the imminent week that could be; to reflect on books read, conversations partaken of, debates won and lost, lessons learned from work or, calmed by the majestic surroundings, the chance to place problems in greater perspective and not feel so hobbled by their weight.
To my chagrin I met a young lady the other day who had yet to ever undertake such therapeutic wanderings, despite having lived here for so many months. No curiosity to go looking, as I did, for all the beauty that could be found within less than an hour from the city.

She was a city person, who only liked city things, such as night clubs and clothing stores. And the internet, where she spent most of her life, chatting away her youth. By the end of our chance conversation, I couldn't imagine her life, just as, I suppose, she couldn't imagine mine.
To never have tasted the heady brew of sitting or laying on one's back, glancing at the clouds going by, listening to the wind rattling the branches of nearby trees... the occasional colorful bird zipping through the scene... cities may be a great achievement, but they seemed to have cost humans something in the exchange, if it results in people having the opportunity to savor views like this one, yet not feeling the slightest inclination to take them.

(To be honest, it was too frightfully cold and wet to do much sitting around today! I had to settle for a standing meditation this week...)