Being there while I’m here.
When you were child, did you have a special place that you liked to go? Maybe it was a fort that you’d built out of a blanket and some chairs, or a secret tree in which you could climb and read, away from everyone else. For me, it was the ocean, and the chance to listen to the waves, feel the sand beneath my feet and smell the salt in the air.
In my world, the ocean is a place of magic and mystery. It is the very opposite of the mountains that I love, yet it too heals my soul and grounds me in a sense of eternity. But living here in Idaho, I am many, many hours from the ocean.
Except that I am not.
About 25 years ago, I began building the ocean and the beach in my head. It’s a simple place, where I am alone with the elements. I call it simply “The Nowhere Place”, because it is nowhere, and yet everywhere. I have spent so much time building the place in my mind that when I visit there, my brain can barely tell the difference.
And neither can my body.
For in the Nowhere Place, I am kneeling in the break of the surf. I can feel the sun on my back, and the water lapping at my legs as I kneel in the sand. As I look out in front of me, there is an ocean, eternal and resonant. To my left and to my right I see the break of the waves on the sand, going on and on forever.
Behind me, there is only sand as far as forever can see. In that place, there is no one else. No judgment, no whispering voices, no needs and concerns that have to be accounted for and factored into my behaviors.
There is just the ocean, the beach, the sun and myself.
And it’s incredibly peaceful there. When I visit in my mind, and allow my breathing to slow and lengthen, I feel the tension leaving from me, and peace returning to my soul. In the Nowhere Place there is solitude, and the absence of time. Forever, there is silence, and a profound sense of peace.
And even though I have never ‘been there’, I have traveled there so many times.
Because when you spend so long mentally building your special place in your soul, it becomes a part of you, and it never leaves. The more energy I have spent in visualizing and feeling the sensation, the more it becomes a part of me, and a place within me. As long as I remember the Nowhere Place, I will always have a special escape, and a place to call my own.
When times are hard, and I feel overwhelmed, I go there to restore my sense of balance and control. And while I cannot claim that it always works perfectly, I can tell you that I’ve never regretted one moment spent there, because every thought that has gone into building that place is an investment in the peace and solitude of tomorrow.
An investment that no one can take from me, and that has repaid me many times over.
— Dr. Alan Barnes
@maddrbmusings