Hiking for miles through meadows and small mountains leads me to a secluded clearing where the grass stretches high to greet the clouds and fallen trees provide comfortable seating. I find myself strolling to this isolated secret location when I need to ponder thoughts or when I feel the overwhelming desire to be absorbed by the simplicity of nature that never fails to pacify my festering agitations. There are trees hovering on the edge of the clandestine meadow that provide shade to engulf me and act as a barrier to keep out all unwanted thoughts.

There is no visible sign that someone else shares the identical desire for this particular meadow as I do. Every bolder unmoved, every log remaining exactly where it fell, and none of the litter that both figuratively and literally clogs my life. This is where I find that I have the ability of super-hearing. I can process all the noises that result from the wind jostling the leaves, or from birds combating in a near-by tree. All my senses are heightened. I can feel the single legs of the ant perusing across my arm and the stem of the leaf that proves too large to be completely lifted onto his back as it too trails along my skin. The grass next to my face as I lay back and absorb the surreal reality of the perfectly shaped blades of grass while they brush against my cheek and sway in the light breezes.

I retreat from my normal schedule and hide myself behind the bushes and large hills of the hike because I know there will be limited people in sight, if any at all. If there is no people around then I can be consumed by the all-knowing wonderful listener that nature is. When I voice my thoughts, no matter how strange they might be, it listens without judgment and continuously answers my questions with obvious time and deep concentration put into each response.

I never choose to leave the meadow that is all my own, but when I drag myself to glance at the clock it always seems I have stayed to long. The meadow cannot provide me with all the essential items that I can find in my home and it is without those items I would perish. And yet I am afraid that without my meadow I would perish as well. I have found that these two worlds of mine create a balance that would never be able to be recreated.