It’s Friday, and for a lot of you that means the start of the weekend. Some of you are already well into Friday, and for others Friday is now a distant memory and you are ahead of the game clock with Saturday on your mind (and calendar).
Most of us endeavor to have a bit of ‘down time’, relaxing moments to savor on weekends. But I don’t think we should necessarily save relaxation exclusively for weekends. What about a bit of a mental break throughout the day? If you are like me (which might be strange since I’d have to start referring to you as, “Cher”), you’ve heard someone say, “Oh, when I’m stressed and need to chill out, I go to my relaxing place.” Um, is that literally or figuratively, because right now I see you sitting on this train with me and it doesn’t look as if either one of us is sporting the suntan lotion and drinking out of a wicker-wrapped glass with a teeny umbrella sticking out of it.
Ah, you must be referring to the free vacation that takes place in the spheres of your mind. Gotcha. Well then, I can relate. I recall a movie from years ago whereby a hockey player was so stressed before a game he kept repeating the words, “calm blue ocean, calm blue ocean”. Did it help relieve his stress? To a point. As I recall the ocean must have turned into a tsunami right at the very moment he began to pummel another player.
Some people go to their mind intermission when approaching an un-welcomed activity, such as going to the dentist. As for me, why, I go to the place you see in the above photo. Until I had witnessed such awe-inspiring beauty first-hand, my relaxing place looked more like a vintage ad for Idaho Apples; clearly, I had no ‘real-time’ reference. Yes, it looked something like this:
Hhhhhmmm, well okay, minus the “Hell” and “Canyon” and……………okay, minus everything but the river, and apple crops and the hills! Yes, that’s it!! Now you’ve got it!
As you can see, I was in desperate need of new mind unwinding material. And I found it; in Maui, Hawaii a few years ago.
As for those apples, why, they can go back to………….
Hell’s Canyon, just like the poster says!
Do you have a ‘calm place’ in mind (literally)?
The Chicago Files 