Stowe Lake Fix...

[thoreau]

This is Stowe Lake in Golden Gate Park. This spot - this bench is where I go when I need to stop and think. It was one of the first little 'getaways' Rick showed me when I was visiting him in March 2006. It's so peaceful and quiet. Miss Kate and I sit there - and I sort through stuff. It's one of the places that is still indelibly marked with visits there with Rick. I went there this morning - because I woke up restless and I decided rather than the gym - I needed a visit to Stowe Lake. So Kate and I headed out there (after stopping for a double tall cup of vitamin caffeine) this morning. The sky is dotted with clouds - and the surface of the lake was beautiful.

I sure needed my Stowe Lake Fix^tm this morning. Particularly in these days of my life where I'm rediscovering things - and hitting the reset button on my life in the big city.... my Stowe Lake visits do a great deal for my heart and my mind. The uniquely cool thing about this morning's visit was just as I was finishing my coffee - and thinking Miss Kate and I needed to head home - the morning fog from the ocean rushed the entire scene like a blanket. Literally in the span of 5 minutes - the place went from warm and quiet to windy and cold and thick fog. I smiled to myself what a metaphor that was for my time with Rick - and how I could get in my Mini - and drive away from it. and now back at my apartment - its morning sunshine.

Where do you go when you need a moment like this? Do you have a place like this in your life?
I'd love to hear about it.

Comments

[bearistab67.livejournal.com]

You gotta love little getaway places like this. Mine is Lake Michigan in Chicago. Just to be near the water feels good. Lay down and just think about nothing. After an hour or so, I feel so much better. Hmmm...I need to head to the lake soon.

[low-fat-muffin.livejournal.com]

take a photo next time you are there? and post it? :)

How far is Oak Park from the shore of Lake Michigan?

[bearistab67.livejournal.com]

Definitely will take some photos. I think the BF and I will be strolling on the lake sometime this weekend. Oak Park is about 20-25 minutes from the lake, so not too bad. I live just down the road from The Frank Lloyd Wright Studio and Home. I do volunteer work there once a month.

[philhasablog.livejournal.com]

When I need "brain time" I have to get out into the fray.

I need crowds, and shops and hubbub. I need to be alone, so I can wander as I want to and go where the flow goes. But I need energy to feed my processing and my recharging.

I would have gone to the gym! LOL

Different strokes and all, eh?

[low-fat-muffin.livejournal.com]

true. I do find some zen time at the gym too. Like yesterday - I was on the treadmill and my favorite cute musclebear couple came in and set up on the treadmill row in front of me. It was like putting a carrot in front of a horse - running behind two men with pentultimately perfect asses. It was like biting into a big sweaty muscular York Peppermint Patty if you ask me. (growr!)

[macduff131.livejournal.com]

at times like that, i feel the need to be near water. lately, i've had this overwhelming need to visit the area where we had a summer house when i was a kid. there are so many memories there.

[low-fat-muffin.livejournal.com]

where is that located? the summer house?

[macduff131.livejournal.com]

upstate in the catskills. my extended family is very large, and we all spent our summers there. despite my want for an angst ridden childhood for my inevitable memoirs when i'm old and rich and famous...i had a damn good childhood and a great family.

[tinman11201.livejournal.com]

I long for a place like that. NYC is so overcrowded that on those rare occasions I can find a place like that, it's usually filled with other people. There don't seem to be any quiet places in NYC, at least not that I've been able to have time alone in.

[low-fat-muffin.livejournal.com]

maybe that'll make a nice personal project.

when I was in NYC - I found the grounds of the Cloisters the most peaceful of the entire trip. It offered a view of the Hudson unlike anything else on my trip.

[tinman11201.livejournal.com]

yes, I lived up by the Cloisters in the 80's It was very nice, but now I live in Brooklyn and it can be like planning a vacation to find the time to get to the opposite end of my "world." It's about an hour and a half subway ride from where I live.

Yes, I know, those are excuses and if I really wanted to I could find a quiet place. For years now, those thoughts have been about leaving this fair city, but I just haven't figured out where I would go instead that has work for me! So it willl eventually come to me.

I've always wanted to live in SF and reading your blog has reignited that thought. So ya never know, you might have a NYC ex-patriot as a neighbor someday!

[osodecanela.livejournal.com]

There are two places I go. Any of the banks of the Russian River, where ever there are few if any people, suits my need when I need to sit, think and allow my head to clear, or just sit with my emotions. The other is a treat I get almost daily. On my drive home from Santa Rosa to Guerneille, there's a stretch of road after cresting a high hill, where the view is sublime, particularly at dusk. The view of the sky ranging from deep blues to magenta, the sight of the vineyards and the forest and mountains in the distance and the sound of the wind as it whistles past my window makes me feel joyful.

[low-fat-muffin.livejournal.com]

these kinds of statements make me wonder if eventually I'll be living in a home in the woods up there. Thanks handsome!

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

My place of calm and recentering isn't in nature ... It's backstage in a theatre in the hour before a performance. I go in early, check on my costumes and props, stand in the wings; sometimes, I walk to the edge of the deck, look out at the soon-to-be-filled seats and a feeling of peace washes over me like soothing rain. I am so happy in the wings ... It's my safe place, the one where I am most welcome, where I truly belong ....

[low-fat-muffin.livejournal.com]

which is why when you get settled up north? you MUST find a community theater group to be involved with.

[moved.livejournal.com]

When I used to live in the country I had a spot a couple of acres into the woods where there was a small little creek. I tended that place like a forest garden - clearing deadwood, clearing leaves from the banks, and spreading moss growth along the sides.

I used to go there and sit on a stump and read/draw/dream when I needed some quiet time.

[low-fat-muffin.livejournal.com]

where do you go nowadays?

[moved.livejournal.com]

Sadly enough I don't have a place. The city, while beautiful in places, doesn't offer a lot of serenity and peace to me.

I do love my new bedroom however. It's very small (a bed and a nightstand can fit) but one and a half walls have windows facing east which makes the room bright and sunny.

[low-fat-muffin.livejournal.com]

when you get settled - in a few days or weeks? I'd love a photo of your bedroom space. :) if you don't mind.

[moved.livejournal.com]

I'll be happy to. It probably won't really be set up until the end of October/November when I can afford furniture. Heh.

[low-fat-muffin.livejournal.com]

there is no rush - it's a quality over quantity thing :)

[jhitchin.livejournal.com]

Currently, I go to a large bookstore, such as my local Borders and just write in my journal. I get something to drink, then zone out. Sometimes I just need to be amongst people I don't know to show me that yes, I have problems, but we all have them, and that all these strangers don't give a flying crap about what might be going wrong in my life.

If I get blocked, or just can't make myself write, I crack open the latest copy of "Logic Paradise" I have (Japanese picture logic puzzle magazine) and get lost in a 50x60 grid puzzle.

[low-fat-muffin.livejournal.com]

I used to that in Boise - go to the Borders and order a coffee. and listen to people around me and write. :) I'm glad we have that zennness in common.

[pixelcub.livejournal.com]

About 4 miles into the Bear Valley Trail at Point Reyes National Seashore, there is an outlook area where you can sit near the edge of a cliff and stare at the Pacific Ocean. I found this spot while writing a paper for my Geography class in college and had come out on several occasions to do field research. There's something about that location that has a soothing effect on me. So much so, that it became a place I would visit once or twice a month during the school year. It didn't matter that it was a 2 hour drive from Sacramento; I just looked forward to spending time out there writing in my journal. (Yes, I actually kept a handwritten journal for several years.) It was during one of those visits I decided to switch my major from Geography (I had aspirations of working as a Park Ranger for the National Park Service) to TV & film production.

Here's a photo montage I put together of the last time I visited "my spot" back in January of this year.

[cuyahogarvr.livejournal.com]

This is why I get on a treadmill every day. That's my quiet time that gives me the chance to just zone out and let go of everything, or work through everything, depending on what's needed at that time. I am fortunate in that the aerobic's room faces north and for those of you that know the north of Cleveland, Ohio, you know that the lake is right there. My office is three blocks from the lake and the fitness center is up 7 floors, so I have a mildly obstructed view, but a fabulous view none the less. Watching the weather change and roll in off of the lake is one of the things I truly appreciate about this part of the country, and yes, I will miss it. I don't know how I'll react to being away from the lake.
In DC, my spot is the mall. Obviously, this is quite the opposite from my spot in Cleveland, but the mall is so exciting and active and there is so much to see and do. I love to just find a spot, somewhere, and just watch the world go by. Even in January, it's invigorating.

[blt4success66.livejournal.com]

My favorite place is on the hillside of a large park looking out on the northwest side of Sioux Falls. I realize that the upper portion of the park is a cruisy site, but I go there because the sunsets are uninterrupted by houses or tall buildings.

It is there that some solace is found. Sometimes.

[scream4noreason.livejournal.com]

I had a similar spot right next to ther Opera House in Sydney,opposite the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
I have a spot now in the Botanical gardens here in Melbourne which I blogged about before,its where iw as on Valentines day.

[septimuswarren.livejournal.com]

I love Stowe Lake; it's one of my favorite spots in the park.

Your post makes me realize that now going into my 10th year in Denver, that I have no such place, and that makes me sad. There are places I like very much, and one would think with the Rockies right here that I would have a spot, but I don't. Something to work on, methinks.

Growing up and living in the Bay Area it was always Tahoe and Sierras. Silver Lake, especially, and the campfire circle even more specifically. I still think that behind the circle is where I want my ashes spread.

[low-fat-muffin.livejournal.com]

one of these days you and I should make a car trip from SF to Silver Lake to fuck bitches over the dryer.

[septimuswarren.livejournal.com]

And have some...beer, women, pizza hot tubs!!

[delmarmar.livejournal.com]

When I was younger I had a specific spot. I grew up in a wooded area in northern NJ near a huge watershed spot. If you hiked in (which was not allowed), there was an old abandoned mansion from the turn of the century that was nothing but the brick outer walls. It was up a wooded hill/small mountain and you could see the reservoir on one side and a big pond on the other. I used to love just hanging around there by myself. It was named Bearfort by the original builder but the locals called it Clinton Castle.

It has since been torn down (I shed a tear) and I don't have a specific spot like it any more.

http://www.tmk.com/clinton/index.shtml