After spending a few days alone at Harmony Hill Retreat in the Catskills I was left with an inner peace I wish I could gift to others. At the very least, I can share how living without a need for following plans can support emotional well-being. First, let me offer full transparency – forever and always in my life I have loathed any question beginning with, “Where do you see yourself in…?”. Even as I pursued various college degrees and navigated my careers, I was living one day at a time. I have always been conscious that no human knows what the next moment in time will bring so I simply work on giving my all to the one I’m in.
Let’s walk through one day of my stay at Harmony Hill to illustrate and hopefully help others let go and let life. I awoke to a beautiful morning listening to numerous birds outside my Yurt windows and decided to start my day with a walk in the woods. When I’m not power walking, I always carry my camera around my neck, and loved the branch you see in the picture accompanying this post. The branch was at the base of a tree at the entrance to a space set aside for “Whimsical Meditation.” It was only after I was looking at pictures later that day that I realized the branch was a perfect illustration of a life unplanned. While the rest of the tree grew straight and strong that unusually curvilinear branch at the base had followed a crooked life path and was just as perfect. It served me as a reminder that planning for something doesn’t mean it has to happen – as you will soon see illustrated while my day unfolded.
After my walk, I was looking forward to visiting a local winery. While looking up information before leaving, I realized it had completely shuttered its doors the month before after the owner retired and the inventory was liquidated. What to do? I started by looking for somewhere to relax and have lunch. I found a cute place, plugged the address into google, and set off. I loved the look of the little town and parked looking forward to some yummy food. I strolled up to the front door only to be greeted by a sign which said, “Closed today.” OK, now what? I decided to walk a bit in the town to see if there was any other place to eat. Finding nothing, I returned to my car and googled places to eat. Much to my surprise, there was one listed just down the street only one block from where I had turned around on my search. I headed back out the same direction I had just been and found the restaurant only to discover that it, too, had closed for the day.
And so, accepting this turn of events, I walked back to my car to look up other places to eat. I found one a few miles away and set off. For those of you thinking it shouldn’t have been so difficult, Harmony Hill is in the Catskills – the city of Oneonta was close, but I didn’t want to venture into the city. Imagine my joy when I saw that this newfound restaurant was open and ready for business. It was a wonderful surprise as I was able to eat outside and enjoy my food in the fresh air. While I was eating, I lamented my missed winery trip and decided to look up nearby liquor stores. As luck would have it, there was one right down the street, so I headed there once my leisurely lunch was done.
Upon turning into the parking area closest to the liquor store I saw a sign with an arrow towards a scenic Catskill trail behind it. I couldn’t pass that up and enjoyed a 3-mile walk on the well-maintained rails-to-trails system. Between the birds, cows, weather, and scenery, I’m not sure which I enjoyed the most. Perhaps it was the serendipity of finding the trail that stands out at the top for me.
Returning to the parking lot, I headed for the local liquor store but was struck by the look of a country store right next to it and turned in there first. Happily, I purchased some wonderful homemade soaps. I finally entered the liquor store planning to buy some wine. Well, I was distracted by a bottle of Bailey’s Irish Cream and thought how yummy it would be to sip as I sat at my campfire later. You guessed it, I changed my plan and purchased that instead of wine. I reminded myself that I live in wine country and decided to wait until I returned home where I could enjoy a couple of local wine tastings in my own backyard.
And so, as I sipped my Baileys by the waning embers of my fire later that evening, I thought to write about my day as an example of how I try to move with the flow of what life offers. I’m thankful I chose to “let go” and “let life” that day instead of experiencing angst over my derailed winery plans.
I wish you all peace and wellness.