August 28, 2014

This

image

Plus this

image

(Those are dolphins. They were surfing. Honest)

is part of the reason I don’t want to live anywhere else. The top picture is a blue whale. The biggest EVER animal on Earth (Suck it, T Rex) and it summers off the Southern California coast.  As for the dolphins, I had a Flipper lunchbox when I was 6 (because I destroyed my soft-sided Mary Poppins one) and the first time I saw one in person (Lemon Bay on the Florida Gulf Coast in 1978), I was hooked.

This is what I do to think. I get a cup of coffee, get to the beach, listen and breathe (and drink the coffee).

I’ve been solving some story problems this way.  I don’t think about them while on the beach. I just sit and stay in the moment. When I get back to the notebook, I find the problem is solved.

Ive been using this method on crossword puzzles for years. Put it down, walk away and do something else. Return and finish the puzzle in short order, even Sunday New York Times.

I don’t know if going to the beach had anything to do with it, but a couple of BIG problems that have been stressing me (and aging me. I don’t like that woman in the mirror. No amount of makeup and teasing her hair makes her look better) have been pushed back. Not permanently resolved, but I have more time to get them solved. That always helps.

I suggest, to the small handful of people who actually read this, that you find yourself such a place. Somewhere to sit and be still, to be in the moment and not think about what lies beyond your little circle of peace.

Tell me about your happy place.

Oh, and I agree with Douglas Adams:

“For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much—the wheel, New York, wars and so on—whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man—for precisely the same reasons.”

***

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *