browser life

Was perusing Ricky Buchanan's Journeying/Journaling (also on my Links list) and came across this entry about listing your top 10 "happy places":

The happy places not-a-meme

This seems a particularly good idea for those with chronic illness because it is sometimes our only means of "escape" from the stress of being unwell. Ok, so maybe we don't really escape in the literal sense, but we can get distracted enough to have decreased pain, blood pressure and other benefits, and what's wrong with that?

Since I've been feeling particularly lousy lately, I figure a mental vacation in the form of making a list couldn't hurt. Here's what I came up with:

1. Music! It's not for nothing that I have nine days' worth of songs in my iTunes. Plenty of variety....some of it danceable even if my actual dancing happens mostly in my head, some of it cathartic, some of it poetic, and some of it just plain mindless. Today, so far I have listened to Atreyu, Avenged Sevenfold, Dio, Metallica, Christopher Cross, Bob Dylan, Harry Chapin, Green Day, James Brown, George Clinton, The Drifters, Earth Wind & Fire and I forget what else.

2. Movies! I like going to the theatre, but that's pretty much out of the question most of the time, so I have turned to DVDs and recording stuff off of Turner Classic Movies, which still provides plenty of good stuff. I'm averaging probably five films a week. I find the older movies interfere less with my cognitive dysfunction, but I am willing to devote some energy to something newer off of Netflix about once a week. And when I am too brain-fried to follow something I haven't seen before, I will grab a comedy out of my DVD collection and watch it again. Tonight, I'm gonna finish watching "Sylvia Scarlett" with Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant.

3. Books, when I am up to reading. Fiction is an awesome happy place, especially when I am visiting Hogwart's or Maine or Middle Earth. I can lose entire hours with my nose in a good book.

4. Taking photographs when I am in the "zone", meaning those increasingly rare times when I have no tremor shaking the camera, no extreme fatigue keeping me from taking my time getting the right shot, no major limitations in getting to the area I want to photograph. Ok, so that situation hasn't occurred in a few years, but I still have moments from time to time when I'm taking pix and don't notice how much I'm hurting until I'm done. Editing pix isn't quite as much fun but still entertaining. Oh, and I get quite pleased with myself anytime I am able to produce cute and clever scrapbook pages.

5. Visiting anyplace with a beach, particularly if it exists in Hawaii. Bonus points for sunsets on a beach. Having always lived in landlocked states, it's always an awesome realization that, hey, this is an OCEAN washing up on my feet. Or at least the Gulf of Mexico.

6. Mountains, particularly if they happen to be the Rocky Mountains. There's a high, flat rock within a short distance of my grandparent's cabin in Colorado (elevation of approximately 9000 feet, I think) where I used to sit and eat something and maybe write a poem. I could see all sorts of snow-covered peaks in the distance, hear the creek in the valley below and the whisper of the trees and the whirring of hummingbirds. The sun when it was out would feel especially close, and the pines would have a tasty scent. Even though lots of people have been there besides me, I think of it as my spot.

7. Writing when I'm in the "zone", meaning those increasingly rare times when I can easily complete sentences without losing my train of thought, come up with intelligent metaphors, and translate exactly what's in my head through my fingers and onto the computer screen without garbling it. Those times when I still feel smart and that I have something worthwhile to say. Those times when something I wrote inspires, amuses or educates someone. Those times when I can claim to be a writer without feeling like I am exaggerating.

8. Holding hands with my husband. It doesn't matter where: at church, in the movie theatre, at home on the couch, in bed as we fall asleep. This is extremely important to me, particularly when I am in too much pain for putting my head on his shoulder. Long hugs are also especially awesome.

9. Hugging Chip D. Dog. His fur is sooooo soft. Even when he was a squirmy puppy, he would hold still when I hugged him. And when he hugs me in his own way by leaning on me.

10. Laughing. It is essential to my life that I laugh as it is the best coping mechanism I have. Just about any source will work: funny movies, funny websites, e-mailed jokes, stand up comics, bad puns exchanged with Dan. And it doesn't hurt that I am easily amused, heh heh.

Hmmmm. Here I thought I would have trouble coming up with 10, and now I realize I could probably add 10 more, like chai tea, Indian food and "Lost" on TV. Guess I'm happier than I thought.