Where Do You Go?

Where Do You Go?

Last night I was relaxing before bed, leafing through the August O Magazine. The issue is based on quizzes. I love me a quiz or 20 so I dove in head first, pen in hand. I quizzed my way to the quiz entitled “Where Do You Find Joy“. I urge you to take this one as it is a “I should have had a V-8 head smacker” moment and it helps you visually work Joy into your life, a few minutes at a time. Why does it take a quiz to remind me of who I am? It is not that I don’t know me. It is that we all need reminding though.

For the sake of transparency I will tell you my themes are reading, walking, cooking, and soaking in hot water (not figuratively, but literally!) I challenged myself to go for a short walk or hike the next day just to work in some JOYOUS ME TIME!

Of course, in the dark hours my daughter had a nightmare so I was up a couple of hours in the night and then there was laundry, dishes, phone calls, organizing, errands to run and the lawn needed to be mowed, but, I did it! I made myself leave the house with the tennis shoes strapped on and the loyal beagle riding shot gun. I was not going to break into this with just another quick walk around the block with the dog on a leash, I was going big my friends.

I was going to the desert.

I used to look down my nose at my uncles when they would speak of the beauty of the desert. REALLY? I could never see it. To me the desert was ugly, hot, lonely and a terrible place full of dead looking plants and ones that had terrible thorns. As I have gracefully aged and matured I have grown to love the desert. It is the most desolate peaceful quiet place I have found. I love the mountains but they are noisy with the wind in the trees and leaves rattling and branches shaking.

The desert is painfully quiet. No distractions.

I start out, and although it is early, the sun is hot on my shoulders. In the desert you can hear a fly coming at you from about a block away even over the sound of your shoes kissing the earth, your breath heavy and your heart pounding. The red ants did not disappoint and were out busy hauling sticks, and twigs and moving earth.

The desert is terribly quiet.

I can hear the flying grasshoppers wings sounding like a loud ratchet here and there. I find my rhythm between walking and running, depending on the terrain, and remember how much I enjoy feeling the sand works its way into my shoes, and even my socks, the way it does in the desert. A large bird flies over head and I can almost see the breeze created from its wings flapping pushing down toward the earth. A lizard or small mouse scurries across a boulder to rest under a sage brush trying to avoid the sound of my body coming nearer. I can actually hear almost every nail from its feet as they race across the boulder. A couple of times I heard the wind coming at me from the Black Canyon thirty miles away and remember, once again, we are all connected. Human, animal, earth, wind, and water, all one.

The desert is amazingly quiet.

Then the crack of a gun explodes the peaceful morning and echoes off of every canyon wall, rock and juniper. It is nearing hunting season in Colorado and someone is sighting in their gun on another ridge. The faithful beagle tucks his tail and turns back toward the vehicle whining and crying.

I remember why I should make time to do this at least once a week. The way I can quickly find my center, my priorities, my peaceful core is priceless. I find answers to questions that elude me. I find my heart. I find my love. I find my JOY!

The desert is one of the places I go to find myself.

Where are three places you go to do the same thing? What are the best things you find when you go?