Photo by Terri Heisele

On Mondays at noon I treat myself to time at Sweet Springs Preserve in Los Osos. Last week a quail in mating plumage preened so I could take his picture and a single redbreasted merganser gorged himself in the pond. Tall eucalyptus trees swayed in the wind, adding to the haven for my spirit. At the bay overlook, several snowy egrets shared lunch-time with me and I wrote a poem about them.

With camera and pen as companions I claim time to connect with myself. In The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron encourages weekly “dates” alone to spark creativity. My outings feel like keeping a promise to my child-self: to take her out to play, to go at her speed of noticing and observing rather than my normal rush.

While I enjoy time in nature, John O’Donohue, the Irish mystic, recommends solitude to explore our inner wilderness and this can be done anywhere. We have wonderful internal landscapes to explore. He says, “We are all such strange worlds. We are more than human. Each individual is an opening where the eternal is breaking through, a portal where things go out and come in.”

Our culture discourages reflection and setting personal time on our calendars, but a date with yourself, makes it happen. Whether your personal experience is sitting quietly in a room or in a garden, taking a walk in your neighborhood or at the ocean, meet yourself for self-renewal, self-discoveries, and self-satisfaction.