Do you visit your favorite places often? I do, almost every day. Thanks to my travel-enthusiast husband, we visit a lot of different countries and have a wonderful time there, but those places we visit only once. There are some places I visit much more frequently and I have slowly grown fond of them. The first place is the window in our house that faces the front yard. Yes, that’s right! It is this window where the morning sun rays first enter our house. I like to pause here and take in the sun rays before starting my busy daily routine. The window also gives me a nice view of the maple tree in our front yard and the neighboring lawns. One day when I was standing there, a pair of birds came flying really fast towards me. One of them hit the window pane very hard and fell on the ground, the other one escaped narrowly and flew away. I was stunned and had tears in my eyes. I wondered if the bird that flew away would keep looking for the bird that was now lying near the window. That place changed for me since that day. I was even more stunned when after several days had passed, my son asked me about the birds and why I had cried. He had looked at the bird on the ground just like we all had, but I had no idea that he had noticed my tears too.
My second favorite place is a recent find. I typically park my car at the same place in my office’s parking garage (otherwise I have a very hard time finding it when I am ready to go home). At the end of a long work day, I took a few steps away from my car and peeked down. Ha! There were two coniferous trees right there and since I was at a height, I could almost touch the tree tops. Despite the maze of buildings and the traffic that spread in front of me, this place was surprisingly very sunny and breezy. The wind was fresh and soon it became one of my favorite places that I would visit at the end of my work days.
My third favorite place is the trail behind our house. Our backyard extends into thick woods. In summer, the tall trees stand even taller with their magnificent green canopies. Whenever friends visit us from out-of-town, we take them on this trail for a stroll. These days, since I am trying to get into a better exercise routine, I go there for a walk quite often and sometimes I take my son with me. He has a great time collecting stones, pine cones and all sorts of other interesting items. We sometimes sit on a fallen tree and eat a small snack. We also like to run down the slopes with long sticks in our hands and pretend to be warriors in search of a treasure.
At one end of the trail, there is a small bench. I have once sat on that bench with a friend and had a long talk. Now sometimes when I pass that bench, I wonder if that friend will just show up there and surprise me! Well, he doesn’t. One day, I ventured a little further on the other side of the trail and was glad to see another bench. Maybe some day, I will go much further and see if I reach yet another bench and find all the loved ones I have lost waiting there to surprise me! I mean who knows, that could happen, right? :-) But until then, it is great to lie down on these benches and look straight up at the tall trees. The trees appear much closer that way and surround you well. It is a good resting place. All my favorite places are. What are yours? Do you visit your favorite places often?