Sometimes the world is a stranger. Every place, every face feels far away. Unknown.
Sometimes, you crave home. The known world. The world as it once was. The world as it should be. Everything in its right place.
Last week, Sebastopol resident Bryan Peterson’s daughter craved home. A place of comfort and joy and simplicity.
Peterson’s daughter told her dad it was time “to go back to my happy place, Mendocino.”
Peterson accompanied his daughter and friends to MacKerricher State Park. With the golden sun making its descent towards the horizon, Peterson captured a moment of time that somehow exudes that nostalgic sense of home.
The trio, bedecked in the long sleeves of the winter months, are walking along the headlands elevated by the path. Their arms are outstretched, as they test their balance, and walk along the boardwalk’s edge. Scattered clouds add complexity to the blue sky of a year’s end and the path disappears into the horizon.
The moment exudes wonder and innocence and a devil-may-care simplicity that exists in all of us but is too often shrouded with age and experience.
Now, shake off your age, your experience. Free of constraints, channeling that feeling of home, ask yourself, “Where is my happy place?”
As always, for your literary consideration, enjoy e.e. cummings’ poem “maggie and milly and molly and mae” which, like this MendoMoment, evokes childhood naïveté and the true depth of an instant:
maggie and milly and molly and may
went down to the beach(to play one day)and maggie discovered a shell that sang
so sweetly she couldn’t remember her troubles,andmilly befriended a stranded star
whose rays five languid fingers were;and molly was chased by a horrible thing
which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:andmay came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone.For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)
it’s always ourselves we find in the sea
MendoMoments, is dedicated to showcasing the land, animals, and people that make up Mendocino County. All Mendocino County residents and visitors are invited to participate. Send photographs to matthewplafever@gmail.com including a description of what your photograph depicts, where it was taken, and any other important details.
Earlier Chapters
- MendoMoments: The Milky Way Takes Shape Over Point Arena
- MendoMoments: The Joy of a Child on a Winter’s Morn
- MendoMoments: The Warmth of Santa Claus Eminates from a Fort Bragg Storefront
- MendoMoments: A Darkened Sky, A Quiet Home, A Leafless Sycamore
- MendoMoments: ‘Frost and Fire’- A Covelo Sunrise on a Chilly Morn
- MendoMoments: The Pacific Transforms as Days Shorten and Shadows Grow
- MendoMoments: Sunset at Blues Beach
- MendoMoments: Savage Waves Batter the Mendocino Headlands
- MendoMoments: Fall Colors in Ukiah’s Downtown
- MendoMoments: A Sherbert Sunrise Illuminates a Blanket of Fog Above Redwood Valley
- MendoMoments: A Roosevelt Elk at Sinkyone Wilderness
- MendoMoments: A Caspar Shack with the Patina of Time
- MendoMoments: The Nearness of Autumn Comes Into Focus on the Mendocino Bluffs
- MendoMoments: The Long and Winding Philo-Greenwood Road
- MendoMoments: Surfer Rides a Wave Under the Blood Red Sun of Smoky Skies
- MendoMoments: A Gray Whale Emerges from the Pacific
- MendoMoments: A Wake of Vultures Feast on a Carcass
- MendoMoments: A Glass Beach Squirrel Gets Ornery When It Does Not Get a Snack
- MendoMoments: A Barn Owl in the Backyard
- MendoMoments: Lost in the Maze of Brooktrails
- MendoMoments: Noyo Harbor’s Baby Ospreys Emerge
- MendoMoments: Memorial Day at Russian River Cemetery
- MendoMoments: Soaking Feet in a Cool Creek
- MendoMoments: The Super Flower Blood Moon Descends Behind Duncan Peak
- MendoMoments: A Little Library in the Hamlet of Hearst
- MendoMoments: Thunderheads Gather Above the Mayacama Mountains
- MendoMoments: Lake Mendocino Through the Lens of a Newcomer
Lovely.