My favorite things about where I live
Yesterday after church I took an alternate route home. Normally I take the bigger divided highway that's practically a straight shot from the bigger town (50k) to my little town (14k), but it was a beautiful day and I wanted to be a little more leisurely in making my way home. So instead I took the winding county highway through the forested hills. As I was driving I saw something that reminded me of all the little things I love about the area. These are not in any particular order, just as I thought of them.
- There's a tree at the top of a ridge along the county highway that sticks up above the rest of the forest and has such a beautiful curve to its top edge and trunk that it looks like it's magic. As if there is something special about this tree, that if one could just walk past the collection of farm buildings at the bottom of the ridge and up to where it grows, something incredible would happen. A tree like this one must hold a magic portal or a colony of fairies.
- In late May through early June, the edges of the forests burst into bloom with the most beautiful purple flowers. I'm not sure what kind of flowers they are, but they are various shades of light purple and lavender, all clustered in the shade of the treeline, and seeing them gives me this joyous "summer is coming!" feeling.
- In the wintertime, when it is below zero outside and sunny, the subzero temperature crystalizes any humidity in the air, creating a beautiful refracting halo around the sun. Some people call them "sun dogs", related to mythology, but to me that just sounds like hotdogs, which is not particularly pretty, so I like to call the phenomenon "sun glories". It's one of the few wonderful things about this place when we are in the dead of winter.
- There is a type of tree, a maple of some kind, that does something amazing with its leaves during the change of seasons. Its inner leaves turn a soft yellow, and it's outer leaves turn a deep orange/red, making the tree look like it is glowing. There's just so much magic in this area!
- On the rural highways it is possible to get far enough away from light pollution to be able to see the stars. It's not easy to find good parking for this, other than just off the side of the road, but it's so nice to be able to drive fifteen minutes outside of town and be able to look up and see a good amount of stars. At least enough to identify constellations. I love the stars so much. Outer space and the stars and planets is just so awe-inspiring to me, that any glimpse I get leaves me wanting to see more.
- Occasionally, it's possible to see the Northern Lights. A few years ago when I was still living in the nearby bigger town the Lights were strong enough and came down far enough that I was able to see them for the first time. They were fascinating, and not at all what the pictures look like (because human eyes have a different frame rate than cameras do, so we see the world differently than cameras do). For that event I found a hill and a spot to park, and the road was lined for miles with other cars of people all there to see and admire and marvel at the same thing. That, too, was an incredible experience.
- The little parking spot just off the rural highway that I've talked about before is so beautiful. Even now, with most of the leaves on the ground instead of in the trees and the view to the river much clearer, it is a wonderful spot to just sit and relax and contemplate things. I get a lot of thinking done here.
- Before moving to the smaller town, my thinking spot was at a park sheltered by a nearby forested hill. The first couple of times I visited this park, randomly selected from the many parks in the bigger town, I couldn't help but stare up at the trees as they shivered in the wind. They were green with new summer and because they weren't all the same tree there was texture to the forest canopy. The wind blowing through them made the whole forest look liked ocean waves, retreating and returning. Beckoning me to come in underneath its canopy and find something hidden, something fantastical. Another piece of magic the land holds in this area.
- Leading up to the summer solstice, the sun rises at 5:30 am and doesn't set until 9:00 pm. Fifteen and a half hours of glorious daylight (when it's not overcast). This means I can wake up for work in full daylight, and still have nearly five hours of sunlight after a full work day1. It may be hot in the summer time, but all that sunlight is wonderful.
- Until moving up here, I had never seen an eagle in real life before. Now, I have seen them many times while driving between the bigger town and my parents' (former) tiny town (4k) commuting for school. Every time, it's an arresting moment, seeing a beautiful, large bird of prey soaring above the fields and lakes. Every time I seen one I feel grateful for the opportunity. Not just eagles, either, there are many birds here that I have never seen anywhere else. Cranes and swans and all sizes and shapes of birds of prey, it's such a joy to see all the different kinds of birds here.
- Sometimes the sky is the perfect blue with the most perfect pillowy white clouds. When I worked at an RV dealership about three years ago, I was just coming inside from unloading something and I happened to glance up at the sky and saw the most beautiful clouds. I stopped in my tracks and just stared up at the clouds for a moment. One of my coworkers, whose desk is in view of the door, saw me and said "I want whatever you're on," jokingly implying that I had taken some kind of drug. I laughed, because it was silly, but I always think about that moment because I guess I was on drugs--the drug of finding joy in the simplest bit of beauty. It's a powerful one, that drug.
There is so much wonder in the physical world around us, so much joy to feel just by looking at the beauty of nature. Even in the frozen winter there is beauty. I think more people need to look for the beauty. It's very hard to hold hate in your heart when you feel true joy.
If you write about your favorite things around where you live, I would love to read it! Send me the link and I'll include it in this post. I love sharing joyful things :)
Thoughts to share? I have a contact page now!
Compare this to the winter solstice, where the sun doesn't get out of bed until nearly 8 am and then sets for the night at 4:45 pm. Miserable.↩