Land of Rain is a Land of Green

The storm arrived as soon as our plane touched down. It was 80 and sunny the day before, it will be 80 and sunny the day after we leave…but for the five days in Portland it will be cloudy cool and a bit of a downpour. That’s certainly ok with me, because seeing Portland in any other way would seem, well…a bit unnatural.

This place gets rain and it gets green, very green. Especially to a Cowboy living in the arid Deserts of the Southwest. By the third hour my eyeballs were bleeding, green. I became green blind. The last year and a half in the desert has sucked every last memory of green from my brain. I have been left with only the idea of green as a word with a definition and one that appeals to me: pleasantly alluring. One that has pleasantly lured me to the Pacific Northwest.

The trip to Portland was indeed to find green as well as to find more spectacular plant life than the tumbleweed and cactus. Though they tend to expose their own unique beauty, especially when not oft encountered. Portland has always been a city of mystery to me, one that I have wanted to explore for the past 8 years or so. There are a lot of incredible makers up there making a lot of fine work.

I get the feeling that this town may hold one of the largest populations of artists in relation to its size than any other town in the U.S. Could this be a side effect of the weather, or the inspiration of all the nature that surrounds it?

In my travels I have repeatedly found that nature inspires me, it frees my brain, lets me think. The busy-ness of our man-made world ends at the beginning of the trailhead. It disappears at the cliff’s edge, it sinks deep into the lake, no longer disturbing us. Nature is where our minds belong, at least its where mine does.

Several months ago I wrote about a trip I took to the mountains of Colorado. The point is that you should always take time to get out and get away from your daily work to let your brain breathe. A funny thing happens after a short time away. Getting out of your normal routine gives you space to think and be creative (this also includes turning off that phone). Just be.

After spending quite a bit of time in the green forests around Portland, the beach was next.

The coastline of this part of the country only looks good to me on a nice cloudy, dark and windy day. It just fits with the moods evoked from this ocean, the large rocky cliffs that dive into it and the crashing waves that bury it.

Go bury yourself in some nature and see what becomes of it. You never know what that creative side will do when you let it free.