Place

This weekend and last weekend we have made it a point to get out of the city and into the woods.

We found ourselves hiking on muddied trails under dense green canopies of dancing leaves by the billion. The rain pit pattered down and finally found us, dampening our clothes and unleashing laughter.

And then open spaces.

I leave my phone dead in the car, and take no camera or electronic device with me. We walk through the trees until we come to a huge sunlit field. The grass is emerald and sparkles in the sunlight. We run through the grass, frogs hopping out of the way and grasshoppers popping up like popped corn and birds singing and my children laughing and my heart is overflowing with joy. We find a creek, pet a frog, watch a praying mantis fly. We walk, run, explore hidden spaces. And then more woods. Trees all around, everywhere you look. A cool breeze is brushing against my face. We are crunching through leaves, the damp smell of the earth filling our senses, dappled sunlight streaming down and warming our faces. We are laughing and dreaming big dreams.

**instagram photo courtesy of C.J. who had a phone to capture the beauty when I did not

I recently read an interview with Michael Perry, author of Coop, who talked about sense of place in a way that kind of hit home for me.
"...I do believe that sense of place is pretty portable. We can be happy in a lot of places. I say that as someone who, given the choice, would spend the rest of my life in about six square miles of northern Wisconsin."

And I find myself wondering about this city of concrete that I live in. Wondering if place is what causes you to thrive or if it goes deeper than that. And wondering if I am truly thriving here, when I find myself feeling most alive somewhere else.