Reflection Time

I saw this article from the New York Times today on Facebook.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/opinion/sunday/the-joy-of-quiet.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

When I was young (in the 40s and 50s and even into the 60s) we used to go to Little River Country Club in SW Arkansas. We’d go for the weekend, or for a week. It was an enclave of about 100 cabins with a golf course, and a club house, and the river to swim in, and places to launch boats for fishing. There were several of doctors and lawyers who had cabins there, and they were adamant that there could not be a phone on the property. In an emergency, someone could call the general store in Horatio, 7 miles away, and someone would drive out with the message. It was possible to really get away. It was even hard to get a decent radio signal. All that quiet is gone, now, and while the club is still there, I don’t think it’s used as often as it used to be.

Here are Anne, Mimi, Harriet and me in the river at Little River Country Club.

And here we are on the steps of Eagles Nest – one of the cabins at Little River.

I talked some yesterday about how Big Al and I really needed to be able to get to a quiet motel suite and decompress after time with the kids and dogs, so this article really spoke to me.

I think the need for quiet and time to just BE is one of the reasons I love traveling by train. When you’re on a train (particularly if you have a bedroom or compartment), the only thing you can do is look out the window, or read, or nap, or think. The world passes you by while you have a chance to live with your own thoughts.

This was basically my view for the whole two days there, and two days back when I went to UNCO11 last spring. I stretched my legs by walking to the diner for meals, and otherwise, I didn’t have to talk to anybody else the whole time, except the steward who made up my bed in the evening and put it back to a seat in for the day.

I’m dreaming now of when we finally sell the house (from my mouth to God’s ears). Then we’ll ship the car up to Tacoma, and we’ll take the train for 3 blissful days of relaxation and escape.

And once we’re there, we’ll be able to ride the ferrys out to the islands, where again, we’ll be able to just watch the world go by.