“There are in our existence spots of time,
 That with distinct pre-eminence retain
 A renovating virtue, whence, depressed
 By false opinion and contentious thought,
 Or aught of heavier or more deadly weight,
 In trivial occupations, and the round
 Of ordinary intercourse, our minds
 Are nourished and invisibly repaired;
 A virtue, by which pleasure is enhanced,
 That penetrates, enables us to mount,
 When high, more high, and lifts us up when fallen”

–       William Wordsworth, The Prelude

I think I was most captivated by chapter 5, The Country and the City, while reading the second half of The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton. In this section de Botton references William Wordsworth quite often while exploring the psychological effects nature has on humans. I am profoundly drawn to nature and always feel mentally renewed after spending time in nature – whether it’s the forest, the beach, or just sitting outside on some stairs. One of the reasons Washington state caught my attention is because of the vast amount of trees and the amount of rain the PNW receives. I am originally from a small, hot city in California where all the grass and trees are dying and the only experience of seeing a beautiful, green landscape is maybe during spring (if there’s been enough rain) or if you travel 2 cities away to go to a “famous” Vineyard. Green happens to be my favorite color and I never cease to be in awe at how many lush green trees are around just The Evergreen State College. I find myself walking around campus (generally away from red square) thinking about how much I love the college I go to and how lucky I am to practically live and study in a forest.  I am always grateful for any drop of rain that we get because I know the trees and plants thrive because of it. I know that even if I am a little bummed that I will be thankful for the rain in the future. It has also given me a deeper appreciation of the sun – Now on sunny days I am grateful whereas in California I became resentful of the sun because it just meant another hot day searching for shade.
California has been in a drought for years and it’s gotten to the point where the lake park in my hometown has completely dried up. When I visited in September of 2014, I was able to walk to the center of the lake – which had been full of life since before I was born. This experience was mind-boggling… I couldn’t believe that the place I broke my foot when I was 4, the place I accidentally threw my fishing pole in when I was 7, the place I had gone swimming every summer, and the place I went to experience a little piece of nature had practically vanished. I think the depth of appreciation I have for nature has stemmed from growing up in a less than beautiful city that rarely gets any rain. Perhaps in its own way, it is beautiful… Because everything has beauty to it, it just has somewhat of a dreary feel to it because everything around you is dying because it can’t get the proper care.

There is no way I would ever be able to live in the city I grew up in again, especially after living in the PNW for a little over 3 years now. Being farther from the ocean has been a tough transition, but being surrounded by forests has been a good compromise.

“These trees gave off an impression of astonishing health and exuberance. They seemed not to care that the world was old and often sad… These trees provided a ledge against which I could rest m thoughts; they protected me from the eddies of anxiety and, in a small way that afternoon, contributed a reason to be alive” (152).

Whenever I feel myself becoming ungrounded or overwhelmed, I realize it’s when I haven’t explored the forest or been to the ocean in a while. I often feel this longing to become one with nature and as essential as water is for life, nature is for (my) psychological well-being. It certainly doesn’t mean it fixes everything but I find it helpful to take a day, or even just a few hours, to ditch electronics for the most part and just absorb what this world has created without much impact of humans. I feel more balanced and grounded after. A sense of peace and gratitude consumes my body and any distressing thoughts or emotions that proceeded.  I am looking forward to finding spots in Portland that can bring a similar feeling.

“Journeys are the midwives of thought…Thinking improves when parts of the mind are given other tasks – charged with listening to music, for example, or following a line of trees.”

Alain de Botton articulates in detail a great deal of thoughts that have already crossed my mind in his book The Art of Travel. I often find myself daydreaming in class, while driving, while walking, while reading, etc. This can create circumstances that become a learning experience, but it can also cause me to overlook potential knowledge right in front of me. I am fortunate enough to live in a time where a good majority of questions that have derived from daydreaming or “spacing out” can be searched and reasonably answered by searching Google. It is no surprise that “thinking improves when parts of the mind are given other tasks” because you’re given new material to draw from. You’re stimulating your senses. I have found myself walking/ driving/ skating past an apartment building and I start thinking about things like whether or not it’s a good location, if it’s a safe location, if I could afford to live there, and even if I know it’s out of my price range and even if I am not in need of a place to live, I will look up the complex online… I look at photos of the inside, what floorplans are available… Which leads me to other thoughts like whether or not I think I would enjoy living with that floorplan setup, what the view from the top floor looks like, what sort of people live there, if there are thin walls, if the neighbors are loud… And the process continues until I hear, see, touch, taste, or smell something that triggers a whole new thought process.

Most (if not all) people have heard the saying “the grass is always greener on the other side” and I feel as though de Botton touches on this matter in an elegant way (though I suppose it was more of the person he was quoting that could make it seem that way). He incorporates history throughout this book and I found myself relating to the section about Charles Baudelaire intensely. I moved around from city to city when I was young because my mom always thought each city was “the one” – but we always ended up back where we started. I’ve inherited that same desire to move, thinking that city will be better than the last. I actually moved to Seattle from the central coast of California for this very reason (amongst others) – thinking it was just the city I was in that was the problem. And as time passed I realized the same thing that Baudelaire did: “It always seems to me that I’ll be well where I am not, and the question of moving is one that I’m forever entertaining with my soul.” (page 32) I believe you can find happiness through traveling, but through my own personal experience, I also believe it is foolish to expect to be happy the whole time. As de Botton says, “It is easy for us to forget ourselves when we contemplate pictorial and verbal descriptions of places” (page 19) and “the key ingredients of happiness could not be material or aesthetic but must always be stubbornly psychological.” (page 25)

As I get ready to embark on my weekly (or bi-weekly) trips to Portland, I recognize that I have expectations in the back of my mind of how the trips will go. I logically realize that I will most likely not experience quite the excitement or happiness I am anticipating. Not to say I won’t be excited or happy, but rather I will encounter situations that may be intruding- such as an upset stomach, bad drivers, rude people, broken down car, etc. Although I am not going very far from Olympia, I think The Art of Travel has been a great book to get myself in the right kind of mindset for traveling. It has also inspired me to reconsider my modes of transportation. I was originally planning on just driving my car, but now I have decided to go to Portland via train at least once depending on the cost. The last time I was on a train was when I moved to Seattle 3 years and 4 months ago and the descriptions de Botton uses in chapter 2 made me very nostalgic for . If I take the train then I am also more inclined to use public transportation to get around Portland and experience the city in a different way than if I were to rely on driving the entire time. Although going to Portland won’t be anything like going to Dublin, I am looking forward to traveling to a city I have been to before and experiencing it with a whole new perspective.