View from a Hammock, and Other Relaxing Stuff

"Ripple in still water/where there is no pebble tossed/nor wind to blow" -The Grateful Dead, "Ripple"

Psalm 23:1-2 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.

My good buddy Ty from down the hall gave me a great idea last week that I was able to put into action this Sunday. I raised my bed up as high as it will go (the bed in my dorm is able to be bunked up to provide extra storage), and hung a hammock underneath it, giving me what I like to call a "no-stress cave." I could not have picked a better week to make it too. Homework's been piling up and I've got to start finding a place to live next year, my head has become so cluttered with "productive" thoughts that I have no room for the important stuff (this is way I have been slacking in the blogging lately, sorry). But now, thanks to my no-stress cave, I now have a place where once I sit down, my worries go away. I don't know, maybe it's the swinging of the hammock or the seclusion of the space under my bed, but there is just no room in there for all the baggage of productivity. Now, I make sure to get everything done before I enter my no-stress cave, so I am still being productive, but everyone just needs that space to just chill with your thoughts.

I love it when I can just get rid of all my stressful thoughts. One thing that always seem to do it for me is the song "Ripple" by The Grateful Dead (by the way, I am proud to say that I was able to see Bob Weir and Phil Lesh's band Furthur in concert last Saturday), perhaps it's because my parents are so unconventional sometimes that instead of singing a traditional lullaby, my mother sang this song to me. It's almost as if it's engrained into my psyche as a sort of relaxant. As soon as this song starts to play, I am instantly care-free. According to a book that my loving girlfriend gave me for our first Christmas together (The Complete Annotates Grateful Dead Lyrics), this song is supposed to be a sort of interpretation of Psalm 23, which would also happen to be my favorite Psalm, whenever I read this the same sort of calm comes over me. If you've ever experienced this phenomenon then you'll know how refreshing it is to just have one thing that triggers your calm. It's a great feeling and I really encourage you all to find something, whether it be a spot or a song or a book, that helps you forget all your worries and stress and gives you a way to just chill, and just chill for a while. It'll change your life.