How to Kiss These Stars

“Nature does not rush, yet everything is accomplished.”
~ Lao Tzu

I absolutely love the mountains. They’re therapeutic. An escape, and EXACTLY the right place to be when you need to completely disconnect and gain perspective. When things are overwhelming and out of control and you need a slap-in-the-face reminder that you REALLY are THAT small. And that the rest of the world keeps turning, keeps spinning, keeps moving, despite your best argument that it’s stopped or is spiraling out of control.

“The cure for anything is salt water – sweat, tears, or the sea.”
–Isak Dinesen

I also love the beach. I love the sound of the waves, the feel of sand between my toes. I love sweating in the hot sun. Cold drinks with little umbrellas, brain candy books and girly magazines. I love the smell of sunscreen and the taste of salt on my lips from sweat and ocean. I love how the sun drains you and allows you to start over, refreshed.

And I love the woods. I can camp. Not like the pros, but I can rough it with the best of them. I like fishing (though I’m not very good at it); I’m not afraid to get dirty. I love the Minnesota northwoods. The trees and the woods and the LAKES. And the canoes on the lakes at dusk. And parking your fishing boat in the middle of the lake in the early morning, or sitting on the dock in the late evening. I love the cry of loons and falling asleep to the sound of crickets.

But. If it’s one thing I’ve learned in my 26 years, it is this:

When it really comes down to it, at heart,

I. Am. A. City. Girl.

There’s really no way around it. My blood boils, my skin tingles, my senses awaken; my whole body feels alive.

I have never been to New York, but I wrote this from the BUS on my way from La Guardia to Grand Central Station because I couldn’t not write this right then.

I’ve never been here, and yet I got GOOSEBUMPS as we landed. I didn’t even see the city. It’s dark out, so I have absolutely NO idea how we approached or landed other than there was water at the very end. We flew in over water.

I’m a Twin Cities native who gets positively silly over the neighbrohoods and restaurants and dives and PARKS and LAKES and coffee shops and MUSIC and people and did I mention the parks and lakes?

I LOVE my city.

I’ve spent some quality time with Chicago this summer and I get giddy approaching that skyline. Seeing the spires atop the Hancock and Sears Towers welcome me. I won’t say it feels like home, but it does feel like hugging an old friend. It’s familiar. It’s comforting in a way that gives me butterflies.

And here I am, in NYC for a whopping 10 minutes and I am comfortable. I was SO nervous and SO overwhelmed at having to get around by myself (barring Ashley‘s great directions), but as soon as I stepped into the jetway, I put on my Big Girl Professional Nomad hat and strutted right out to the NYAS men in the blue vests to buy my ticket to Grand Central.

And it didn’t feel scary.

At this point, I tuned my iPod back to Kings of Leon’s “Manhattan” because, we were approaching it and I could suddenly see the skyline and dammit… that just felt right.

What about you? Where is your zen? Where are you most at home?

(Photo credit)

Tagged as: Manhattan, New York City, Travel