I’m challenging each of you readers to post a photo on your blog of the place in your home or world that most reflects peace and serenity to you. Don’t feel like it has to be master photography. It just has to be a photo taken by you of somewhere that you feel grounded and at peace.

My place is my hammock.

Back when Tony and I first moved in together we shared a tiny home in a lovely neighborhood that was covered in mature trees. I loved it there. I loved our huge yard most of all, even though the trees were so huge that we couldn’t even grow grass back there. I loved the wildlife that our personal forest attracted. Most of all I loved my hammock where I spent MUCH time every day, winding down, meditating, relaxing and learning to cope with our crazy chaotic life. We outgrew the house really really fast and when our landlord decided to sell it, he offered us the option to buy it first. We were sort of cornered into buying it but once we got the mortgage preapproval, we wizened up and decided to shop around and found a place that was much larger and would better accommodate our growing family. The problem was, our new house had no trees. None. We had the same huge yard but not a single shade was cast. Part of my deal for buying the house was that we had to also buy a hammock stand and hammock but it was never used, it was just never the same. Even though Michigan doesn’t get all that hot, there is something truly centering about laying UNDER the trees on a beautiful day. Minus the trees, it had no appeal to me at all. Eventually we moved to yet another treeless home and we toted our hammock with us where it stayed in the garage until we moved, yet again, to Texas.

Finally I feel like I’ve come full circle and I’m back somewhere that feels like home to me: earthy and full of nature and shade and birds singing. It took us a year but we finally got our hammock up this spring and there is simply no better way than to spend an afternoon or 10 minutes than relaxing under the trees with a good book in my hammock. The smells, the warmth of the filtered sun, the breeze, the dragonflies flitting about, the sounds of the squirrels and birds vying for territory, the sight of the gigantic Texas sky speckled through the bright green of our ancient trees, my dog lounging nearby sharing the occasional kiss or snuggle, it is my idea of heaven. Peace on Earth.

So what’s your special place?

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 19th, 2008 at 8:20 pm and is filed under Nature, Photos & Videos, Tags & Memes, Things I Love. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.