Been going through it lately. Find myself venturing a couple blocks to a nearby beach, and driving past the 4wd only sign to find some solitude.
I go out there, set a timer for a hour, put my ear plugs in (earplugs are custom made for extended periods of power tool work in enclosed spaces), and stare at the shore.
I’m not figuring my life out, or trying to achieve zen. just shut down for an hour. I quit thinking, quit everything but looking, and listen to my breathing. I watch the birds come and go, searching the shore for minnows and mollusks and all in silence. Eventually my watch vibrating is enough to bring me back to it, and I go home.
My life is so loud, and busy, and constantly changing. Sometimes I think I just need a lack of noise for a while.
Anyone else?
I’m in a city now too, just on the outskirts sorta. I’m in a poorer part that actually got redlined back in the 1980s. The street I’m on got split in half. I just happen to be close to the beach. It’s also a beach on the Gulf of Mexico, and it’s nothing picturesque. It’s just a place I can go that happens to not cost anything beyond the yearly parking permit fee of $13.
It’s open 24/7 so even on the nights I wake up stressing out, I go out there and sit. There’s a public fishing pier that goes out about 300’ and sometimes I’ll go sit at the end and just listen to the water and watch the fishermen go about their night.