There is a place that I’ve been to that is hidden in the deep north, away from the highways, the cities, towns, and technology. Here in this place far off in the New England forest I spent summers of my childhood where I would escaped from the chaos of the modern world with my family for a week or more. The White Mountains, not touched by the hand of man, it keeps its natural beauty while the world around it develops and changes. This is the place where we hid away and enjoyed the isolation and peacefulness of the mountains.

Our journey to this paradise was always something to look forward to when the days became hot, it was our escape. Driving miles through the winding mountain passes seeing the world around us change and fade into the divine luscious forests. This journey to a place of such wonder it seemed as it with the changing of the world around us that we ourselves were also going to different world as well. With every passing tree and rock the mountains seemed to grow before us, stretching high into the mountains touching the clouds with their peak. The clear skies ahead called to us with its song in the wind, beckoning us to go up the mountain so that we too can touch it with our own hands. Just as Alice went through her looking glass and found wonderland, the journey to the White Mountains was our crazy adventure, we didn’t know what to expect once we were there. But we knew it was going to be something extraordinary.

When we finally arrived to our destination and our feet hit the fresh virgin soil, we knew our journey ended. We stayed beside the river that flowed through the mountain range. The river is the blood that runs in the mountain, providing life to all the things that live there. Allowing animals and plants to grow and thrive. The graceful movements of the river call out to you like a siren to a sailor at sea. You need to touch and feel its beauty and power. To feel the large river rocks that has been smoothed over time due to the constant flow of the river. The stones only an accessory to the river bank, making the bright clear waters glow with the sunlight reflected from the heavens. Every curve and nook accentuated with the fine lines of earth and stone that nature has created over time. When you look at the river it seemed something like a fairytale setting, the light beaming down on it like it was proud to show off this natural paradise.

This place in the mountains that with every pebble and every seed, to every droplet of water, it accentuated and shows life in an outwardly simplest yet internally it is the most complex and beautiful forms that I have ever laid my eyes on. This place of xanadu that provides me with a light to seek out parts of myself that without I don’t think I may have ever gotten to know. The isolation of the mountains lets me alone to think about what I want and who I am and not have to worry of the craziness of life. The White Mountains called to me, and inspire me through its overall sense of peace and oneness. It clears my mind of impurities and replaces them with positive thinking. This place opens my mind and lets me explore the untouched world that many have yet to get to know. It gives me time to step back and think for a few days and lets me experience a closeness with something that doesn’t seem of our world when in reality it was and still is the foundation of what our world is. The tantalizing call that draws me to this place, the call that I believe is placed there when something affects you so much, it draws you to a place of peace which in times allows the mind to rest for a time.

When the time is come to leave this place, I do feel a kind of sorrow. For I am leaving behind a place that has brought a great comfort to me; but I know that I will return again. When spring turns to summer, and the days grow long and hot. The call will come again, and my family and I will travel once again up to the mountains. There we play in the wood and swim in the clear river. We hear the sounds of nature, growing, moving, and living. All around us we will hear the sounds of life, and we will be taken back into that time of peace once more. I look forward to the long drive in the mountain paths, watching each tree and rock go by. But for now the mountains fade behind, the paradise long gone. The trees waving farewell and the wind sings us goodbye. The scenery around us changed from what was lush wood to now little towns, the towns into highways, the highways into cities. Back into the chaos of reality, but the thing that keeps me sane is that I know the mountains are there, they are waiting, and they are calling me out again.