Bathing in the Forest
Exploring the Radius Around Your Home
In this week’s Wednesday Waffle, I mentioned one of the things I enjoy doing is making the most of the radius around my home.
The reason this is so powerful is it breaks our addiction to thinking that happiness is on a beach in Mexico.
A few weeks ago I checked myself into a Scandinavian-style spa outside of Toronto. The selling feature for me was the certified Forest Bathing trail on the property. It’s apparently one of the only ones in Canada.
While I enjoyed the spa experience, and it was well worth the $100 outing, the trail that I came to see was nothing that special. I will give it another try this fall though because there are 9 stations or “invitations” that I didn’t get prepped on before walking it.
Amazingly, for such a grey and damp day that I went, there were no mosquitos around the property which helped too.
Finding the Local Equivalent
Yesterday I took Teddy to the park that we always go to on the weekend (Cedervale), and for the first time we ventured off into the backtrails. This dog loves the woods, he even created his own trails in the gardens of my parent’s backyard.
Needless to say, this trail, a five minute drive from my home was just as good as the one at the spa that requires two hours of driving and $100 to access.
If getting some peace and quiet is the challenge, venture out earlier in the day before the general population is out.
Something I’d love to create one day is a community where people share quiet retreats in their area. On paper this sounds like you would ruin your special spot by sharing it, but this is such a niche need by today’s standards that I don’t think this is an issue.
Back in the one-block radius
I went for an espresso one day this week and happened to see my dear friend Giovanni who was featured in The Crossing Guard.
I don’t usually have a reason to learn a language, but he has inspired me to learn a bit of Italian so I can have a proper conversation with him.
Giovanni and his wife live a few houses away from the corner where he works his crossing guard magic.
Who are the people in your community that bring a smile to your face when you run into them?
Rooftop Sunrise: Murphy Slope
Enjoy some meditative guitar and organ music accompanied by a sky on fire that I filmed earlier this summer.
The guitar was recorded through the Boss ME-90 amp simulator and multi-effects that I was demoing that week.
Listening back to the piece I realize it’s a very solid pedal to use because you don’t have to go through any menus like my usual pedal by Line 6. It would also work great on some monophonic synths, but for bass there is a separate model to use.
Thanks for reading today, I wish you a great week ahead 🧡🥯🧡
Elliott