Sometimes my mind goes
into overdrive with thoughts. What am I going to do about this? What am I going
to do about that? And on and on. But other times I feel like I’m sitting atop
Wizard Island on a calm sunny day looking into the eternal blue depths of Crater
Lake. I know that image seems random but Crater Lake is a place of great
serenity in my mind and that it is there while I may be miles away gives me
great comfort.
Sometimes
we just have to take stock in those things that may momentarily be inaccessible
and think about them. I’ve heard it said that Crater Lake is the deepest lake
in North America and that seems plausible. It has a deep sapphire blue to it
and all the negative thoughts in my mind can just be plunged into the depths of
that beautiful lake to be gradually resurfaced in tiny increments with the
rippling of the wind—tiny increments that don’t overwhelm me in the rush of a
raging river but the contemplative serenity of a deep blue.
Crater
Lake is in the heart of the Oregon Cascades and its reality is always a
vacation trip away for me, but sometimes even when I can’t go on vacation its
presence in my mind is enough. Its presence gives me permission to leave my
heavy thoughts alone and to let them disperse completely. That’s true with so
many of the natural landscapes of our country. They allow us to realize we aren’t
really that big of a deal. There are other things much bigger than us and that
is ok. Sometimes we need to be reminded that we aren’t really very important in
the whole scheme of things so our little self-manufactured problems are even
less important. Places like Crater Lake remind us of beauty and help us forget
our little uglinesses that we make all by ourselves. For me great depths of
water in the high mountains remind me of the beauty in the world. And for that
I am thankful for Crater Lake.
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