In a quiet, secluded glen, there is a small shallow pond I visited as a child of ten. I called this place my Hidden Valley, and when life’s problems and pace became too burdensome for my small shoulders to bear, I would seek out the solitude and utter peace I managed to find there in my Hidden Valley.
Like the broad shoulders of a faithful, patient friend my Hidden Valley never failed to comfort and reassured me, as I sat upon the bank and erased the world from my mind, perched upon the cool grass so damp and inviting, which was at times also a cushion for my head.
I would gaze at the blue sky peeking through the leaves of the trees always stretching out their protective branches majestically overhead like a magnificent canopy. As I watched, the leaves swayed and danced like silent wind chimes, which no one but I could hear.
As the breeze whispered and frolicked its tune, butterflies fluttered about in a playful game of tag. As I hung my head over the bank and watch the reflections intently, mosquito fish and minnows darted about in schoolboy fashion, spurring plump, portly tadpoles to burrow beneath the filmy froth of fudge like foam that blanketed the bottom of “my pond.”
As I lay mesmerized, graceful long legged water skippers skimmed quickly across the water’s unbroken mirrored surface, leaving tiny doughnut rings radiating across the glassy reflections, until they disappeared like tiny hoops falling over the horizon. And all the while I silently watched the sun shone like brilliant silver, with subtle flecks and hues of amber as it winked through the soft lacy green of the leafy canopy overhead. Soon the world was quiet and at peace with itself.
My pond will always be waiting, that patient and gentle friend, until I need her solitude and seek her once again. Even if it is only just a memory of the tranquility and peace I found in my childhood years. Those memories still represent a feeling that my surroundings and I are one, a feeling like that of relating to a solicitous friend; a feeling of well being where all is bright and right with the world.
