Smile a Day: Sitting by running water

[samanthabryant]

#smileaday Sitting by running water.

The thing I miss most about living in Alaska is wilderness. Being able to go someplace where there aren't any other people and all you can hear are the sounds of nature. It used to melt the stress off of me. I didn't know how much I craved it until I came back to the 48 and it got so much harder to get.

In my part of North Carolina, I can get out into the woods pretty easily, and I can usually even get to be alone or nearly alone there. But I can hear the highway everywhere, and that's a mood killer.

I've found one natural place in my town though, where I can't hear the highway. It's at the bottom of a woods loop, alongside a wide creek. If I go sit by the water there, the water itself is loud enough to mask the residual buzz of tires on asphalt.

I went there today and sat on a downed tree letting the water wash my troubled thoughts downstream. It was perfect.