Just Ten Minutes From Here
I’ve lived in this house in Watsonville on the Central Coast of California for sixteen years. I love it here and hope it’s my final home.
While in this community I’ve also lived some of my travel dreams: Italy, Ireland, England and Wales, a cruise on the Danube River, bus excursions to the national parks in the U.S. and Canada and many of the 50 states. And then suddenly and without warning, we were in a lockdown, limited travel, masking and vaccines, cautions at every turn. No more movies–for a time–and worries about breakthrough infections even for some who were vaccinated and ‘boosted.’
I took walks in my neighborhood and a little beyond, read many books, watched too much TV, got bored with my own cooking and missed seeing my children and grandchildren–some for as much as two years.
Then today I had a different kind of ‘breakthrough.’
While walking I stopped in my tracks and looked around. To my right stood a beautiful mountain–a place I’ve hiked many times over the last few years.
To my left were flowers and trees. In front and behind me on the street were men and women on bicycles, others walking dogs, wandering cats and overhead flocks of some of the most beautiful songbirds.
As I read somewhere recently some of the most beautiful scenes anywhere at any time are just a few minutes from our front door if we get out and notice them.
I did that today and I’ll do it tomorrow too! A pandemic cannot keep me down for long.
I hope you’ll go out and find the beauty that is just ten minutes from your front door.
“Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.” —Henry David Thoreau
So true dear Karen. It has kept me encouraged throughout the pandemic . I live right in the middle of one of the most beautiful forests in CA. However, right now I am in Texas with my daughter and extended family. It is a different kind of beauty here, but God’s creation is all around me and I am blessed. Thanks for reminding us of this. Blessed New Year to you
Thanks Etta Mae. And blessed New Year to you too.
Oh yes, Karen. You are so right. God’s gems are right there in front of us if we look. Yesterday, while on my walk with Dash, my 85 lb labradoodle, I came upon a peregrine falcon sitting on a bush to my left. He was a third of my dog’s size and amazingly beautiful. Such that it caught my breath and made me say out loud, “Thank you, God. That vision was not wasted on me.”
I can’t believe it has been 16 years since you left your lovely home in San Diego. I love reading every post you make. I comfort myself in your words. They give me peace. That said, grief is grueling. I move on step-by-step comforted in the knowledge that I spent more than half of my years in the comfort of my partner who was the treasure in my life. He was a gem. He was a genius full of humor and kindness. How could someone who was a genius be so comforting!?!? Karen, thank you for all of your comforting words. Love.
Thank you, Helen. I appreciate your warm words in the midst of your grief.
Beautiful, Karen. As I sit in my cozy home looking outside at the extraordinary sight of 8 inches of snow on my cypress and covering my lawn, I see my bird feeders surrounded by colorful finches and hummingbirds. My cat, Myka, is very content to sit beside me for a change. It’s a very peaceful day to marvel at God’s magnificent creativity.
Barbara, how nice to hear from you. Your cozy surroundings and the gifts of nature at your doorstep sound so wonderful. Happy New Year.
You are fortunate to have so much beauty around you and have eyes to see it!
I too, am fortunate. behind our house is a large grass yard, then a sidewalk and a large pond, then a golf course. The sidewalk goes from one end of the golf course to the other around the back (our side) of the pond. On the far left of the golf course is a large forest where lives a family of Deer’s. On most days, late in the evening the family of Deer’s walk by our house on the sidewalk from the forest and are out of sight for us but later we see them go back to the forest. We do not see them every evening but we have a lot of photos of them. They sometimes come in our yard and we have photo’s of them in our yard and close to the side of our house with their young. Sand Cranes come in our yard also and they are beautiful.
One afternoon there was a deer and a crane standing several feet apart just staring at each other, as I watched I wondered which one would leave? I took a photo just before the Deer decided to leave. Smart Deer as I am sure the Crane’s huge feather wings would have covered the Deer. The ducks are plentiful in the pond. We are blessed. Thank you for sharing your walk with us. I love it. Margaret
Margaret, how blessed you are with so much of God’s creation around you. We see an occasional deer close to my house, as well, and it’s always a treat.
How well can I identify. Saw a lot of God’s handy work at Mission Bay and now I see more in Central Valley. The mountains are frosfed with snow and the air is crisp and clean. The pandemic had not kept me isolated. I am out and about in a careful way.
Thank you Karen for your reminder to appreciate God’s creation.
Thank you, Joan. I love knowing you are out and about in a safe way and enjoying God’s creation.
Thank you for the reminder that beauty is everywhere if we only open our eyes to it. But also it may give is a way to give back. Take another look at the wandering cats. Are they extremely thin, perhaps struggling to find anything to eat and drink? Stray and feral cats, now called community cats, need our help. It isn’t their fault they were lost or abandoned in our community or born because someone didn’t bother or wasn’t able to have their parents neutered or spayed. My brother has been privileged to care for a colony of such cats for
many years. I help when he needs it and we have adopted so many. The love they give us is so touching and humbling. There are so many ways to serve and protect all of those in our communities. We just have to open our eyes to see the needs of each.
Jane, your care for the cats near you is really dear. The ones I see belong to my neighbors so they are well cared for.
I know that area well, Glenda. So happy to hear you are enjoying it regularly. Love, Karen
Karen, I’m so glad I read this, and on New Year’s Day 2022! I think we all need a breakthrough of some kind in the positive way you discovered it here. During pandemic pandemonium, we have done lots of walking in neighborhoods we’ve never explored before, and also at our cabin in the woods. Michael and Sheridan “cheated” there with an Audubon app, playing authentic recordings of birds, and real birds we’d never before spied, came out of the deep, deep woods! It was amazing. Thank you for your ever-encouraging positivity and for displaying beauty at every turn through your words and images. And another Thoreau quote I love is this: “The bluebird carries the sky on its back.” Would that we could carry some blue sky, rather the weight of a blue mood. Love you so, and please add me back to the blog mailing list, now that my eyes have healed from surgery!
Happy New Year!
xo
Lynni
Thank you, Lynni. I love the Thoreau quote and the cute anecdote about your family adventure walking in the neighborhood and in the woods.