TAKING TIME TO INVENTORY, UNPLUG AND RESET
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I had the opportunity to go out to Joshua Tree National Park. It was a vast expanse of landscape with nothing to distract you. I drove through the park to get a sense of all the beauty. Not often, when you live in the city do you have the opportunity to get out to places like this. When you can stand at any point and look around only to see nothing but beautiful landscape. Giant rock structures that seem to just extend up to the sky from nothing. Joshua trees as far as the eye can see. Walking through the desert you realize that in order for life to live out there it has to be robust and adapt to the dry landscape.
The opportunity to sit on a rock and take it all in. The absolute silence, as you hear nothing. I sat and stared off in the distance, my mind was erased from all that was going on. I felt the ability to take inventory, think to myself how many things really matter. What matters to me? Of everything going on how does it effect me directly, how much do I want to pay attention to. I let my mind go, thoughts of COVID and lockdowns, political tensions and everything news. In those few hours I realized none of that mattered. Not in the least bit. I didn’t have a negative thought while I was there.
My advice to anyone is take the time. Take time to not just sit by the lake or at the local park. Take the time to drive deep in to nature. Sit and watch, listen to nothing. Let your mind wander and let everything go, RESET. The year has taken its mental toll on all of us through frustration, anger, hurt, sadness. Disappointment has a way of eroding our thoughts and making us feel like things will get better.
The time spent in silence was an absolute blessing, an opportunity to realign what is really important. Take what is good that you have and preserve it, just as the plants take the water and preserve it for the long hot summers. Learn from that, realize that there is so much going on, that it’s important to I only take what benefits you and preserve that. The mind has a way of finding the things that upset us. We must take responsibility for ourselves, only taking with us the ideas that are beneficial to our well being. In no way am I minimizing real issues people have going on in their day to day lives but the opportunity to sit amongst the trees in absolute silence and realize how insignificant…
