Old Comforts
Finding comforting people, places and things is important any time, but especially during challenging times like the pandemic the world is suffering through. Pine forests. Gentle rolling mountains. Deep blue lakes. Raptors soaring overhead. Leaves rustling in a light breeze. These are comforting thoughts from my childhood, camping at lakes in the Adirondacks. Thousands of miles away and decades since I had easy access to those places, I still find comfort from those mental images. As years pass, the people and places we spend time around may change dramatically. We cultivate new comfort zones. Years of living in San Francisco means that broad beaches, rough surf, and areas that combine ocean views, mountain views and cityscapes have become comfort elements. I still dream of my old favorites, small lakes in the hills, surrounded by forests. Time spent hiking around the five lakes of the Marin Watershed have made them “new old favorites.” They feel like my Adirondack childhood, but are part of my current life in California. May everyone find places and things in their current life that bring back old comforts from the past. This week’s Hike Notes, Kent Lake from Shafter Bridge, take readers to one of the lovely lakes of the Marin Watershed that remind me of the Adirondacks where I grew up. The long list of Hikes can be found on the Quick View Hike List and on the main Hikes page. All past Insights posts can also be viewed in the Insights/Hike Update News archives. Check the Home page for the broader background story. If you’re not able to take one of these Northern California hikes, hopefully you can enjoy the photo galleries at the bottom of each hike page! Click Insights/Hike Update News for inspiring reflections. Please feel free to share. New this week: Hike Notes 112: Kent Lake from Shafter Bridge
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The Big Picture View
A week doesn’t go by without someone mentioning how the pandemic shutdown has them feeling like Bill Murray in “Groundhog Day.” Fewer places to go, not as many people to see, less variety of activity. Each day is a recycling of small details from the day before. Friends can’t remember what day of the week it is, because everything repeats in a loop. This is surely not the first time I’ve made these points in a HikingAutism.com post in recent weeks. “Groundhog Day” it is. Being caught up in a narrow-scoped, repetitive loop can be discombobulating. For some it is depressing. For others it allows underlying emotional and psychological issues to mutate and grow. Relationships are subjected to new stresses. Simple things are helping people cope in a more positive way. Enjoying the slower pace, the lack of traffic-filled commutes, the ability to hang out with family (even if for some that means distracting background noise on work calls). Getting outdoors for a walk, even just in the immediate neighborhood, has been a lifesaver for many during this restrictive time. Parks and nature areas opening up more means more opportunities to expand our mental horizons as we drink in broader views. Cliché as it seems, standing on a high hill looking out at the distance is a healthy perspective-changer. Realizing how small we are in the big picture is oddly reassuring. Even if our attempt at a broader view is limited to our back window or the top of a hill from a city block, looking away from our immediate surroundings helps put circumstances into context. There’s always something new in the distance that we can’t see clearly yet. (And some of it has to be good!) If you can get to the top of a high mountain to refresh your life perspective, good for you! For the rest of us, looking at the horizon from a hilltop or a window will still help us shake that “Groundhog Day” feeling. This week’s Hike Notes are from the archives, Moraga Mosaic Stairs to Grandview Park, one of San Francisco’s many great stair walks with a priceless view. The long list of Hikes can be found on the Quick View Hike List and on the main Hikes page. All past Insights posts can also be viewed in the Insights/Hike Update News archives. Check the Home page for the broader background story. If you’re not able to take one of these Northern California hikes, hopefully you can enjoy the photo galleries at the bottom of each hike page! Click Insights/Hike Update News for inspiring reflections. Please feel free to share. This week’s Hike Notes from the Archives: (Original Hike Notes 68): Moraga Mosaic Stairs to Grandview Park Other Places, Other Times
Restricted from going almost anywhere but home. Unable to join in regular activities with groups of people. Feeling trapped, stress builds and tempers become short. Sound like the pandemic shutdown? This is the day-to-day reality for some people even without an international health emergency. Being restricted in terms of location, people interaction, what we eat, where we shop, the ability to get medical care… Welcome to the world of a special needs family. One day the havoc wreaked by this virus will lessen. Our ability to move freely will return, maybe in somewhat different form, but things will be easier someday. In the meantime, thinking about beautiful places we’d like to visit, activities we want to do, and people we want to spend time with is a healthy fantasy escape. This vivid daydreaming about future highlights can brighten our restrictive current reality. I enjoy tapping into the past to think about the future, and have archives of photos from past favorite hikes that I haven’t yet posted on HikingAutism.com. I dreamed of going to Big Sur for many years and finally got there a couple of years ago. Looking at images of the stunning scenery of Big Sur, including the glorious Pfeiffer Beach, transports me to another time and place, with happy thoughts toward a future when I can visit again. This week’s Hike Notes take readers for a walk on Pfeiffer Beach – Big Sur. Pfeiffer Beach with its keyhole rock is a stellar highlight of the already magical Big Sur Coast. The long list of Hikes can be found on the Quick View Hike List and on the main Hikes page. All past Insights posts can also be viewed in the Insights/Hike Update News archives. Check the Home page for the broader background story. If you’re not able to take one of these Northern California hikes, hopefully you can enjoy the photo galleries at the bottom of each hike page! Click Insights/Hike Update News for inspiring reflections. Please feel free to share. New this week: Hike Notes 111: Pfeiffer Beach – Big Sur The Long View
Sometimes we hit a bump, realize we’re facing a big challenge, and figure, “That’s okay. I’ll work like hell to get past this, and then things will be back to normal.” In the early days of our son’s autism diagnosis, we—like many other parents—were told that if we worked hard enough, did enough research, and spent enough time and money filling every possible minute with special therapies and diets and learning tools, that our autistic child would “get better” and move on to have a normal life. Special therapies, diets and learning tools are great. They really are. Truth is, though, most autistic children go on to be autistic adults. Improvements, progress, yes. Being “cured” and “becoming normal,” not so much. Many who are on the autism spectrum resent the idea that they need to be “fixed.” For high functioning people, that’s an argument they can make, but for severely affected individuals with extreme communication limitations, and related medical conditions such as seizures, gastrointestinal problems and sleep disorders, relief from these challenges and a greater ability to function independently would be welcome. When our son was three, we were jolted by his diagnosis of having a “speech delay with autistic traits.” By age six, we felt discouraged at the lack of progress in overcoming speech and neurosensory challenges. By age nine, we realized that this was going to be a marathon, not a sprint, and that we had to figure out how to keep running at a pace that wouldn’t kill us. Long term caregivers have to figure out that balance. The current health crisis and social upheaval are similar. The world as a community has hit a big bump that initially looked like it couldn’t go on for long, but it is. We are in for a marathon on several fronts, so stop, look out in the distance, and try to enjoy the beauty of the big picture, without letting the in-your-face trauma knock you off your feet. This week’s Hike Notes are from the archives, Ocean Beach – North End. San Francisco’s Ocean Beach offers sights and sounds that take the edge off city life. The long list of Hikes can be found on the Quick View Hike List and on the main Hikes page. All past Insights posts can also be viewed in the Insights/Hike Update News archives. Check the Home page for the broader background story. If you’re not able to take one of these Northern California hikes, hopefully you can enjoy the photo galleries at the bottom of each hike page! Click Insights/Hike Update News for inspiring reflections. Please feel free to share. This week’s Hike Notes from the Archives: (Original Hike Notes 22): Ocean Beach - North End |
Lisa LouisSharing insights and hiking highlights (Hikes, Hike Search by Area) from the special needs caregiver front in San Francisco. Archives
February 2025
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