What is your happy place?

I got a fabulous new book in the mail today about a photographic bit of rural queer history from New Brunswick, Canada. Tomorrow is a holiday here. I’ve had really good herbal tea. I ordered a surprise for my daughter. I ordered something for myself that I’ve wanted for a very long time. I’m listening to really good music. Tomorrow I get to have coffee with friends I haven’t seen for about 3 or 4 years. It’s going to be a good weekend.

@Hawaii_Jake So much yay. :)

@raum I find it a little scary that your happy place is being with an exacto knife!

My happy place is Stokes State Forest. It’s a state park with cabins built in the 1930s by the CCC. I had vacations there with my family when I was a child and we took our boys there several times over the years. I loved being there. Have only been there once since my marriage ended and my sons live far away.

My other happy place is being in my own house with the sun shining and the prospect of buttered toast for breakfast imminently.

Outrigger canoe paddling. I love paddling in lakes, rivers, bays and open ocean. I love paddling easy and paddling hard (racing). I love intense short distance sprint paddling and long distance paddling. I love paddling with other canoe paddlers and paddling alone.

I go canoe paddling all year around totaling well over 2000 miles.

Canoe paddling is a great low impact exercise for an aging body.

“Everyone must believe in something. I believe I’ll go canoeing.” -Thoreau

My room, with my computer that’s why I’m typing :D

Well, other than that, my room provides me with other things like art supplies. I can do so many things in my room.

Step away from the exacto!!! ;} Since the beginning of the pandemic, my happiest place is under my dogwood tree in my zero gravity chair in my front yard with my laptop situated before me. It’s most pleasant in late Spring to early Summer when the weather is 75º at the hottest part of the day. I sit out there for 15–30 minutes so I can soak up some vitamin D.

Anyone else get the feeling that @gondwanalon likes paddling?

Hiking in nature. Walking the beach.

I would love to go hiking, but my body can NO longer handle it; so, I’m limited to enjoying the pleasures of nature in my front yard!!! ¯\(ツ)/¯

Like @Mimishu, my bedroom is my happy place.

I am happy. I choose to be. I love the beach, home, and sometimes I love the work that I do.

@janbb You can take the student out of the architecture studio. But you can’t take the architecture studio out of the student. :P

Architecture studios were pretty stressful with neurotically-detailed work, deadlines and late nights. But I think I really thrive in that kind of environment.

You’d think a relaxing environment would be more relaxing. But my brain is too noisy. The stress and deadlines help my brain focus. Plus the satisfaction of working with my hands. :)

@LadyMarissa Dogwood trees are so lovely.

@SnipSnip I’m happy and grateful to be. Though I don’t think it’s as simple as choosing to be happy. No one chooses depression.

@gondwanalon Do you have a paddle bucket list?

@Mimishu1995 and @KNOWITALL What makes your rooms your haven? Is it something in it? (Super comfy bed? Fast WiFi?) Or just that it’s your own space?

@Forever_Free Do you have a favorite hike or beach?

This is going to sound trite, but I try always to be in a happy place. It’s one of the major goals of my mindfulness routines on the Waking Up app.

@Caravanfan What’s the Waking Up app?

I think right now, it’s my backyard. We have to move in a few months, but the yard here is the best I’ve ever had. It’s fenced in (very good when you have dogs) and full of old trees and undergrowth. There’s a few steps leading out of the house that get a lot of sun, and I like to just sit there and watch the dogs play, or read, or listen to the sounds of the neighborhood. I usually hear chickens, kids playing, birds chirping and bees buzzing. Sometimes trains or planes, but not unpleasantly loud. Occasionally piano music. Today I watched bumble bees crawl into their insect house and prevented my puppy from eating them. It’s spring, so the air smells like flowers. There’s tall hedges all around, which means noone can see me (I can walk around in my pyjamas). I love the yard.

Either Disneyland or Thanksgiving dinner with the entire family.

^ Ha, wow. I love that you enjoy these things, but it’s funny to me that both those are very much places of stress and claustrophobia to me. Though if Disneyland were people-free and I could just enjoy the rides, I’d be quite happy there.

@longgone That sounds like a great yard! I always have established old trees envy. Hoping your new place will be just as lovely.

@filmfann and @longgone Disneyland is neat in bite size pieces. When I worked there, we had a pass to come in whenever you’d want to. I’d just come in to people watch while I ate lunch. And maybe do a few sketches.

But when we go with our in-laws, it’s a whole day event. And major sensory overload for me.

Wish I could tap out midday for a nap. But they don’t make strollers for adults. :P

@filmfann There’s definitely something very cozy about thanksgiving with the entire family.

@raum I need solitude to recharge and there’s no one to please but myself. Outside that door it’s about everyone else.

My bottle.

@KNOWITALL I think that’s why I like late at night. Everyone else is asleep. Just me time. :)

@ragingloli Totally not what you meant, but after reading @KNOWITALL ‘s comment, it made me think of I Dream Of Jeannie bottle/room.

I love laying on the deck. I live across the street from a lake, and the deck has a view of the lake. I will lay under the big umbrella, because the goal is not to get suntanned, it’s just to enjoy the solitude. I have a lot of plants on the deck, and I will be out there with a glass of Diet Coke or water, and a magazine or book, and the computer, and the phone. I could spend all afternoon and evening there, when the weather is nice. I’ll prop open the door to the house so the cats can come and go. If I don’t do that, they’ll scratch at the door for me to let them out.

My other happy place is any hotel that I go to, and that includes my room. I guess it’s laying in bed with the computer and the TV, and just being able to hang out and relax. My daughter and I love hotels. When we go on vacation, we’re very content just to stay in the room. Not that we do, but we really enjoy our time in the room.

The ocean, or some kind of water, like a mountain stream or pond or river, where I tune in to each of my senses, individually. I ask “what do I hear? see? smell? feel?” And the great thing is I can do this without actually being there, although I’d prefer it if I was. Another place would be a campsite in the evening with a fire and some marshmallows and/or hotdogs.

@raum It’s a woo-free mindfulness meditation app by Sam Harris. Costs money but if you can’t afford it email them and they’ll give you a free subscriptions. If you do it make sure you do the introductory course.

@Caravanfan Is that the Sam Harris that has a podcast?

@raum Just so. The same.

@Caravanfan Oh how interesting. Will definitely check it out.

@raum Like @KNOWITALL, I need a space to be alone doing my things. But my room just happens to provide me with a large enough space and all the things I need. If it was somewhere else that could provide me with the same things I need, then I would still be happy. That was what I learned when I was in Thailand. I shared a room with three people and I only had a bed for myself, but I was still content :)

@Mimishu1995 It’s funny how our ideas of personal space adjusts. I remember having a bottom bunk in a hostel—in a room full of bunk beds. And it still felt like my space. :P

Rogue River gorge, near Paradise Creek, Siskyou National Forest.

Sometimes I wake very early just before dawn, and half dreaming/meditating visualize myself there.

Those are good days.

Where I live. I’m surrounded by natural beauty.

I’ve never been happier.

I would answer with somewhere that doesn’t quite exist, if that’s alright. It is a library, small and personal, where my books can speak with their own narrative voice. A fire roars in the fireplace, an ironically fitting ambience for a place filled with paper. I peer through gold-rimmed glasses at each yellowed page, and find solace in the fact that I can even escape from a place of utter joy, into tales of those who have their own happy places.

@UtterWonder Absolutely alright. That’s a lovely answer. And hope you happen upon a real life version of it someday. :)

Muir Woods in Marin County, CA. It has been nearly a decade since I was there last, but that’s where I mentally escape to if I need serenity.

@gorillapaws I can’t stand going there now. The traffic is horrendous.

@Caravanfan Yes, my son and I went there on Christmas Day some years ago and had to park miles away. I’d been to the woods in the past but it’s crazy busy now.

@Caravanfan Back in the 80’s it was much less crazy. The redwoods were about the same size too.

@gorillapaws I agree. I was in the Bay Area in the ‘80s too. Fortunately now I live in an area that has a ton of open space and I can go just a short distance to get to a forest environment. It’s not Muir Woods-type trees but it’s local, I can hike to it.