The Door to Happiness and Peace

Crown Beard on the Prairie

I love the color yellow.  It’s always been my favorite color, but for years I denied it.  I’m not sure why, but I suspect it’s because a lot of people do not like yellow. So I gave in to peer pressure and said my favorite color was blue.  Blue is the opposite of yellow on the color palette so I secretly took pleasure in pretending that blue was my favorite. But always, when I had a chance to choose between two things, one of them being yellow, I always chose it.  For me, yellow is the door to happiness and peace.

I have many yellow things around me.  My front door is a beautiful golden yellow that reminds me of the sunrise.  I have yellow pillows and accents throughout my house. I have a yellow camera!  Whenever I am trying to decide on what to plant in my flower gardens, it always turns out there will be yellow. 

Gray Headed Cone

There are so many yellow things in nature, and I seek them out on local prairies.  The glorious gold finch and singing meadowlark. Gray headed cone flowers swaying in the wind.  Tall compass plants that amaze me by pointing their faces to the north. Late summer is my favorite time to walk the prairies because they are filled with blankets of yellow.

Walking a prairie full of yellow flowers of all sizes and heights, is a pleasure I can’t recommend enough.  If you need to refresh yourself and get clear of the everyday hubbub, you need to get outside and observe nature.  Most of the yellow is gone from the prairies at this time of year.  So I try to capture with my camera moments in nature that give me peace.  Then, when I am not able to get out, I can look through the photographs of the things that gave me great happiness.  It’s medicinal.  And for me, yellow is the best medicine and cure all for everything that ails me.

Cinquefoil

So there is my confession, I love the color yellow.  I will not deny it anymore.  It is said that the color yellow represents clarity of thought, wisdom, orderliness and energy.  It really does give me energy.  But yellow also has a calming effect.  I’ve always said, “There is a reason yellow rhymes with mellow.”

My wish for you is that you will find your “mellow” color and that you will spend some time searching for it in natural surroundings.  Whatever your favorite color is, enjoy and savor it, let it bring you happiness and peace.  But until you have a chance to get out there, please feel free to use some of my photographs here to help you find that extra bit of “stillness and tranquility” you need today.  And try to accept my favorite color, and put a little yellow in your life!

Butter Weed

ARE YOU READY FOR A WALK?

I love the word “saunter.”  Saunter.  It rolls out of the mouth slow and mellow.  In his essay, Walking, Henry David Thoreau suggested there is an art to taking a walk; that is learning to saunter.  To saunter may feel to some to indicate the activity of a vagabond – a homeless person roaming from place to place. Thoreau suggested that to saunter, or “go forth on the shortest walk” should be an adventure and a crusade.  In his eyes, those who sit in their houses all the time are the vagrants.

 “I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station [in] which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in.”  George Washington Carver

Many people have never thought much about tuning in to nature, but learning to do this is not difficult.  Our lives are so busy with obligations and fast - paced social networking activities, it is easy to sit inside and ignore nature.  Forcing yourself to take time for a walk outside is how you tune into nature. 

In spring and summer the world is full of green things.  The color green is said to be gentle on the eyes.  Is it a coincidence that God made so much green at a time of year that encompasses the newness of the earth?  In fall and winter, the colors are much different.  Fall yellows, oranges and reds are inspiring and comforting.  Winter whites and blues may seem drab, but these colors in nature evoke calmness.

You don’t have to find a solitary location or official hiking trail to enjoy the peace of nature.  It can be found in your backyard, on a street corner, or in a local park.  The trick, as Thoreau puts it, is to free ourselves from all worldly engagements.  He points out that legs are not made to sit upon, but to walk upon.

When I walk or hike, I am on a crusade; a crusade to find the best part of nature, the ultimate spot in the wild, and peace.  When I find it, I suck it into my heart so I will never forget it. 

Walking for me is direct contact with God, and this contact leads me to answers and solutions in my life. I agree with Anne Frank when she said, “The best remedy for those who are afraid or unhappy is to go outside.  Somewhere where they can be quiet and alone with the heavens, nature and God.  Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy amidst the simple beauty of nature.”

According to Thoreau, to become a walker requires a “direct dispensation from heaven,” and he challenges those he feels are not fit to take a walk.  I don’t know if he was serious when he said this, “If you are ready to leave father and mother, and brother and sister, and wife and child and friends, and never see them again – if you have paid your debts, and made your will, and settled all your affairs, and are a free man – then you are ready for a walk.”  It  sounds like he was challenging us, saying not everyone could become a walker.

So, are you ready to go for a walk?  I hope so. Get out there and enjoy your natural surroundings, find peace, and defy Mr. Henry David Thoreau!