The world can be a stressful place at times. Often there is a need to step back and re-energize our tolerance to stress, pressures and worries.
Certain places in the world can be restorative to our spirit. These places may be somewhere in your own region, in your own street or even in one’s own backyard or a quiet city street.
Such ‘Quiet Places,‘ may bring solace and a settling of the nerves.
In the year of Covid confusion, I re-visit quiet places in my dreams. Photo archives bring those memories to life again, if only for a transient moment, in the present time.
Like the time, I stayed up in the mountains of Norway..
Or on the banks of the Tauber River in Germany.
I am drawn to locations by the water, presumably due to the calming effect of the waves gently caressing the shoreline.
What about you?
Where is your ‘Quiet Place?’
Create a Friendly Friday Challenge ‘Quiet Places’ Post
To join the challenge, simply add a ping-back link and a Friendly Friday tag to a new post, then come back here to leave a comment with the published link, so visitors can find you and visit.
If this is your first challenge contribution, there is a full set of instructions on how to join the Friendly Friday Photo Challenge on my blog header.
Friendly Friday will at StPA, in two weeks time. In the meantime, next Friday, you can discover the next prompt at my Friendly Friday Challenge Co-host’s blog, The Sandy Chronicles.
A fine set. For me it is our garden and some areas of our New Forest
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We make our gardens places of peace and tranquility. I can imagine you having many cups of tea amongst the greenery.
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Am so lucky . . .a quiet street to the front, a parkland if I do open the door towards the back . . . ! Appreciated since I like to make my own ‘noise’ if and when but not necessarily live with that of others I do not live close to water at the moment but you make me think . . . the Baltic seashore holding hands with Dad and hearing him teach . . . The Sognefjord north of Bergen on a small ferry boat with friends just made . . .. .Bodensee south of your Tauber when the Yanks and the French no longer bombed and strafed us in Germany . . . you are making me stop and think and smile . . . the seas tonight off Wollongong are yuck . . . nah: am happy here . . . . . . . . .
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Is it windy and rough down the “gong” way tonight, Eha?
You are so right about the sognefjord and most fjords in Norway. What beautiful memories holding your Dad’s hand on the shores of the Baltic.
Of course there are many quiet places in every continent. It is interesting how many of us seek them out as we get older. Perhaps we are growing tired of overstimulation?
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Beautiful memories, we all need places like that these days. I know I do!
Here is mine:
https://photographias.wordpress.com/2020/09/25/friendly-friday-quiet-place/
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Stay safe, Sofia!
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You too!
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Travelling in your dreams is a great alternative if – for various reasons – actual travelling is difficult or impossible. And quiet is in the eye (and ear, and mind) of the beholder.
One of my quiet places, close by, lucky enough: https://picturesimperfectblog.wordpress.com/2020/09/25/a-place-with-a-view-2/
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Loved that view.
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I would love to be surrounded by hills or mountains. Sadly, I’m living the apartment life at the moment in Sydney so for the moment, I’m seeking the peace early in the morning. I would love to not hear passing cars, buses and neighbours!
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City life can be overwhelming and stimulating but many of us need down time. Can you get up to the Blue Mountains or Kuringgai National park?
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Yes, although a bit far. Been doing a lot of coastal walks.
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I hear that is lovely.
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Your quiet places are lovely.
We moved to the mountains six years ago. My main quiet place is the view from the bedroom window. Before that, it was taking a daily walk in the village beside the inlet. There are so many beautiful places on this earth!
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Thanks for saying so, Anne.
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Walking the dog on the beach.
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I often reply quickly to your comment on my phone, Peggy, but the darn internet signal strength is so variable here it sucks up my reply into cyberspace. Twice I replied to this on my phone, but it has vanished. Now on my desktop, I hope it sticks.
Walking the Schnauzer on the beach is the best thing to do – if you have a dog that likes the sand. One of mine does, the other hates it.
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Gardens and hills provide a silent and peaceful welcome and nothing like watching the Mother Nature.
Love the clicks you gave us from your archive.thank you Amanda
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I appreciate your lovely comment and supportive words, Ptp. Many thanks for visiting.
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Thanks for the brief meditation prompts. Cleansing breaths while I sit her and scroll through you shared serenity. All the best, Keith
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Thank you, Keith! I see that you understand the power and peace that comes with a calming breath. I am so happy you might use this for a prompt for meditation.
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Thanks. I have been doing yoga and other stretching of this old body every morning for about fifteen minutes. The breathing helps immensely. Keith
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Namaste! I am a bit of a fan of yoga too. I do about 10-15 minutes every morning and find it very beneficial.
I have been doing it on and off for around 35 years. It is great.
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I have taken part with pictures taken just this morning during a road trip to Macgregor, South Africa.
https://appeltjie.wordpress.com/2020/09/25/friendly-friday-challenge-quiet-places/
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Just this morning? Gorgeous. You answered the brief well! It looks like a lovely day in South Africa. For how long with your road trip continue?
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Thursday was the sunny day with 25 degrees, Friday was overcast and it drizzled from mid-day. We have a long weekend here, Thursday being a public holiday and many people taking Friday off, especially after covid to go camping. We are going home on Sunday.
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How lovely. Is the long weekend in celebration of anything in particular?
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The public holiday is called Heritage Day, celebrating the different cultures of our country.
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Lovely. Sounds a bit like our ‘Harmony day,’ not a public holiday but celebrated by many workplaces.
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Here is my participation in the challenge. The pictures have been taken just this morning on a road trip to Macgregor, South Africa.
https://appeltjie.wordpress.com/2020/09/25/friendly-friday-challenge-quiet-places/
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Thank you for participating Appeltjie. You will see my reply just above.
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Quiet places are so important for contemplation and re-energizing. Hiking is one way I get to such places and also getting in the water: https://grahamsisland.com/2020/09/25/floating-debris-and-tiny-sergeant-fish/
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Water is known to have a calming and therapeutic effect for many, Graham. If I have a small cut on my hand or toe that looks a bit angry and possibly getting infected, I like to get it into the salt water and surf and it works miracles to fix it within around 24 hours after a swim. Getting dunked in the surf is also a great way to clean out one’s sinuses! Anyway, back to the topic at hand. Thanks for joining in. Great photo pick for the challenge.
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Great prompt. My quiet place is either in my room with lots of sensory equipment around me or in the sensory garden near the day center I attend. I took some pictures in the sensory garden last week, but already posted them on my blog, so not sure I can join in this challenge today.
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Oh boy Amanda, your challenge sounded familiar … there’s a movie called “A Quiet Place.”
I remembered the name but hadn’t watched it yet. When I looked up the trailer, I remember now why I hadn’t … I am such a chicken!
Still, I’m looking forward to seeing everyone else’s posts on their Quiet Places.
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Mountains are quiet places… by the time you get up there ain’t many people left… 😉
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Lol. A very good reason to climb. It gives one a totally different perspective on the world.
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Strangely enough very similar to when you jump in parachute. Not what people think about skydiving. What strikes you when diving is the silence. (But much shorter than the mountain)
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Skydiving is something I’ve always wanted to do since I was a teenager. Now I probably won’t ever do it. A video of a friend completing a tandem jump showed me how much your face is distorted at the beginning of the jump, from the wind. Not at all the peaceful quiet feeling I envisaged.
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I did it in Africa, in my twenties. In that time you jumped alone, with an automatic opening of the chute. Much better. We jumped lower of course. And once the chute was open, you were on your own. In utter silence….
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Now that is what I envisaged it to be. Meditative, almost.
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Of sorts. Though it is so brief, you don’t even have much time to meditate. need to plan your flight down, check wind and direction, where you will land. Avoid trees. Swamps. (We dived in Africa, between the sea and a swamp.)
One more thing: time perception is demultplied. You can feel every second.
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So you can slow time in a way? Fascinating. Except for the swamp!!
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In a way. On my 3rd or 4th jump, they gave me a better parachute. It was so “slow” in opening that i’d already crossed my arms to open the chute manually. Then it opened and all was ok. I told my instructor later on the ground. He looked at me with wide-open eyes and said: “this new ‘chute you had? The opening time is 3 seconds longer than the other one!”.
I tell you, you can feel every second.
(And the swamp? We lost a group there once for 4 hours. Dropping mistake. Jumped too early and fell into the swamp. We had to send 2 rescue parties. I was in the south party. We had no compass, nothing. Took a dog with us to find our way back…
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That sounds like the wild frontier, Brian. An adventure and a great story. The swamp must have been a very large one, I take it?
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Large indeed. Our party walked, crawled to the centre and back in 2-3 hours? The other party went in form the North, found our guys safe and sound in the same time more or less. Couldn’t tell how large, a good many square miles. Lots of water snakes… Yuk.
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Eeew! I would not have gone in there for love nor money! They would have had to walk or crawl out!
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We all felt we had to go into the swamp. Two converging parties. What if one one them had broken something? It was a nice adventure. And everybody came out safe.
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Yes I understand and I am glad you were the one going in, not me. I would have been the one to volunteer manning the control centre/meeting point back on the shoreline! lol.
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Haha. Indeed some stayed at the dropping zone in case the missing came back alone.
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The view from your hotel is incredible. Great memories too!
I really don’t get the chance to travel too much anymore but you don’t always have to travel too far to find a quiet spot. I’ve been down to our quiet place a couple of times this week due to some particularly good weather. Of course, my camera has been with me and, the images fit so well with your challenge. I feel lucky I can do this. I hope you find the images restful.
https://jazzibeeblog.wordpress.com/2020/09/25/a-quiet-place/
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They were indeed restful. I really enjoyed my visit to your blog.
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Love the photos of your travels, looks so peaceful. For us just being home is our peace. I am trying to create as many little quiet little restful spots around the property as i can.
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Delightful that you are creating a haven with lots of little seating spots on your rural property. I am also aiming for that in my new home. We need them.
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Quiet places great way to relive the stress.
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Indeed Phyllis. Where is yours?
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Any park will do. I like to go exploring.
But this summer, I’ve walked a lot around the lake near and have enjoyed the year round changes.
It’s made me more aware of the nature as I travel around the cities. There is a lot of native grass and flowers in around parking lots.
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Are the overgrown parking lots since Covid, Phyllis?
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I sort of answered this question with a post. You might say you inspired the post.
https://mythrider.wordpress.com/2020/09/28/one-park-at-a-time-ray-of-hope-in-trouble-times/
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My entry – http://transitionofthoughts.com/2020/09/26/photography-summertime/
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Lovely views! I too love the sea side and the calming effect of lapping water. Living to far from the sea, I often find myself in the Botanical garden for som quiet time among the flowers.
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Botanic gardens are awesome places to take a stroll. And beautiful for finding a quiet place.
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I didn’t think you liked poetry Sandy! What great words to accompany the photos for this challenge.
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Wow. So pretty. My quiet place is any natural place I can take a long walk in. It grounds me!
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We all need grounding at times, don’t we SpiritualFantasia. Whether it is our imagination or ego driven wishes, coming back to what is essential and important, vital and natural is balancing and beneficial for any soul. Thanks for stopping by and your lovely comment.
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Yeah! Thank you, you described grounding so insightfully! Nature is a simple reminder to be present, to see the effortless beauty in life’s flow. We don’t need to worry, stress, or live in our heads!
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You said it so well, “we don’t need to live in our heads.” For if we do, that is living in the past or the future, which is not our reality.
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Hehe, exactly! One of my tendencies, actually! :=)
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Goood…
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Lovely collection of quiet places. I’m grateful to live just 5 minutes walk away from my quietest place.
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How lovely to have a quiet place virtually at your doorstep! Is it a park/beach/other?
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It’s a meadow. 🙂
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Agreed! 🍃
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Oh my goodness I love this!! I have two days to figure out how to actually “do” the technology to “join” the challenge. 😂 I am BRAND new to all of this. I can’t wait to participate. 🌅 Thank you for this post!
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It is easy Christine. Just write up a post and leave a comment here so we can visit. here is some more about creating a pingback. This is so people can click on your link rather than searching. https://wordpress.com/support/comments/pingbacks/
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We have a new challenge each week.
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Love, love, love it!
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I did it! I joined the challenge! It was pure joy for me! I’m not sure I did the tagging and ping backing right but I’ll keep trying if I didn’t! I confess I am more than a tad challenged in the technology of the blogging world. Lol Thank you for this challenge! I LOVED IT! 🌅
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I am really looking forward to it!! 🌅
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What beautiful photos and lovely memories, Amanda. I am late but I just did not want to miss out. Here’s my link-https://acacophonouslife.wordpress.com/2020/10/01/friendly-friday-quiet-places/
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I am happy that you join in, Moon. Whenever you can. I can’t wait to see your post. How are things over in your neck of the woods? Things appear quite tense from the reports?
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Things are exactly that…tense. Lack of empathy and hatred and making everything political…it is just chaotic to say the least. I have been here for a little over a decade now and I have never seen this country or her people like this.
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That is a sad report on the atmosphere in the US. Are you thinking of moving again or are you committed to stay there?
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This is beautiful. For me, it’s the park near my place. I can lose myself in it’s tranquility
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So nice that you have a place near to home that you feel you can lose yourself in tranquility Naya! That is something to treasure.
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My ‘quiet, happy, restorative place’ is my families home up in the hills of St.Ann, Jamaica. I miss it so. Thank you for the reminders…
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That sounds lovely, 12raisins. Jamaica is a country I know so little about. Apart from the Jamaican bobsled team. Hehe.
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I really love this post. Quiet places are so important to visit and just find some mental refreshment
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Thank you for saying so. Mental refreshement is something most people need right now! And with regularity. I am pleased you got something from this post.
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I did not take a picture as I was mid-panic attack, however I found an empty stairwell and sat so long the lights dimmed. It was satisfying.
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Hi, nice to meet you, and thank you for reading my post(s). My garden is an organic, wildlife paradise and you can see it in my post ‘Spring into Summer in my garden’.
I also love books and will write about in my tomorrow’s post, I hope you can join me.
Joanna
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How lovely of you to visit and leave a sweet comment, Joanna. Welcome to StPA. Your garden sounds divine and I will pop over to your blog to have a read soon.
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