FINDING YOUR HAPPY PLACE

Okay Dear Friends, let me tell you where my happy place is NOT- It is NOT in the laundry room and it is NOT in front of an ironing board (though it should be since I have a pile to be ironed a mile high!) My happy place is NOT at a doctor's or dentist's office no matter the reason or the person concerned. My happy place is NOT in a crowded shopping area either. I just get sweaty palms and itchy feet when I have to be in a large crowd. I am a self proclaimed germaphobe so that just adds insult to injury.

I found that when we all moved in together way back in 2007, it was imperative that I find MY happy place and get to know it on a very real and personal level. I searched my heart and soul. I visited every room of my house townhouse (our home wasn't finished yet), I drove around town and I searched. Boy.Did.I.Search. I just couldn't find that place that gave me the peace and solace I needed when I became high strung or needed a time out. (YES, I NEED time out too!)

I didn't become complacent though, I continued to search and I found it! Not in a building. Not in my body. Not in my car. I found it right outside in my yard. I guess I take after my grandmother and mother in that regard. I often wondered growing up, why my mother was outside in our garden when our house was in deep emotional turmoil. I would see my grandmother puttering around outside when I was a child and wonder how she could still be out there when dinner needed to be cooked.  Now I know.



Color...beautiful color

 It took growing up and having children of my own and a hectic life to understand how playing in dirt and communing with bugs, worms, small animals and birds could be so relaxing. There is just a closeness to nature and God that you feel. All the inside drama and worries vanish when I step outside and take a deep breath. And here folks, is the best part...THEY LEAVE YOU ALONE! Not a soul bothers me when I am "working" in the yard. Unless I summons help, I don't hear a peep from the peanut gallery. It's the best part of my timeouts. It's total me time and I have come to crave it and need it, especially as Spring shows her beautiful face here in southern Ontario.

My Happy Place is a place reserved for me by me. I can right my heart, let go of troubles, reminisce of times gone by, dream of times to come,  remember people in my life who are now in Heaven, calm down and simply be free. And it feels good. SO GOOD. Now please don't get me wrong. Because my garden beckons me often doesn't mean that I have an award winning yard. And it also doesn't mean that every time I'm outside I am in my "happy place." I am a mom you know!

So when it's -25 degrees celsius and there are feet of snow on the ground and I can't find a blade of grass for miles and miles what do I do? Now don't laugh okay? I bet many of you have been in just the same place for just the same reason! I go to the shower. That's right the good ol' shower. That, my friends, is the only other place I can retreat to where I am guaranteed no one will bother me. And I stay there until the water runs cold and I am forced out! What a lovely place of calm and solitude. It's just plain cleansing!

Now, I don't know if you have a place that makes you happy. But a Happy Place is better and cheaper than therapy and if you truly allow yourself to feel the calm and embrace the solitude, your Happy Place can be the very place to let go and relax. Try it!

So this morning I am off to my steamy Happy Place and then to my "retail" Happy Place of late...the garden center!