It was last semester (no, Dad, not Gatlinburg in mid-July) that I wrote some essays for my Junior portfolio, and man do I love to write topical things like "If you had to choose a superpower and why", "Things that make you laugh", "TV show most like your life", or "My Oasis". I was just reading some of them, and I think I'd like to put one up here for funzies. Hope you enjoy, this one's My Oasis.
An Oasis, defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is "something that provides refuge, relief, or pleasant contrast." I really like that word - contrast. It shows how I feel about an oasis. Sometimes, my oasis is somewhere covered with people, because it's different. Sometimes, I gather strength from the most quiet, desolate, and calm region I can find. A crazier oasis for me is whenever I run. I feel peace when forcing my body to do strenuous activity, especially when alone. I search these all out to form an oasis of sorts. In a way, my oasis is everywhere that differs from the norm.
A huge, crazy, thunderdome is a portion of what my oasis could be. It's different from the everyday, clearly, but what else is there is hidden. I mean this literally, the oasis I find within large stadiums is not within the focus on the games or activities, but rather the lack of focus on me. Within a stadium or a room full of people, I can hide, think, contemplate, without any interruption. I'm not sure there's been a time where I have been in a large group without doing one of my favorite past-times: people watching. An art that has been passed down from my mother, that is. I love to study behavior, find out why people do the things they do. I have a friend, for instance, that was once extremely apologetic for not saying thank you for a ride home. I noticed it was something he really hung on to until he was satisfied that he was heard to say thank you, not until the person in the car was satisfied, but further. This friend's dad has not been involved too heavily in the friend's life, and whatever the dad says, the friend idolizes. I then decided that his dad probably told him not to forget that at one point. That is the kind of people watching I enjoy. Studying why and how they became who they are. That creates an oasis in my mind. A world of imaginative reality. There are few things better.
I share part of my oasis, which I believe is everywhere, because everyday is different, as well as every situation, with others. The most common oasis I think I see is the quiet, calm, and collected place. Where everything can be in the order you want it, and everything there is something you want to be. My room is a huge oasis for me. It's where I watch my movies, answer my e-mails and messages, often I eat my food there, and it creates a living space that no one else shares or knows of in a detailed sense. It's a place where my deep thoughts can be thought without fear of someone saying "What are you thinking about?". I think that's incredibly important to my being - some place I can think quietly without being stopped. I can talk to God without any interruption, which is the most important thing there is. I can seek him and ask to hear from him, and I, thankfully, get answers quite a bit. Sometimes I think that he might just love me a little bit =]. I love my room , my space, and my quiet places. They are of dear importance to my spiritual and emotional well-being, which are quite linked.
The least understood part o fmy oasis is the running. When I push my body to the edge and one step further, you don't realize the cloud I fall into. Eventually, after the first few miles, it's like I've run straight off of a cliff, and my legs move without any fussy complaints like pain or muscles pulling. My muscles simply decide they are done feeling for the next hour, and continue to move for me. That oasis of movement without feeling is a sensation that hard work can bring. Hard work is such an oasis sometimes. Especially work like running, it's monotonous, but only if you do nothing but run. Running is not so I can get in shape all the time, or win a race. Running is my way of thought process. Running is a way to grow and expand my thought processes. My brain needs to work hard, and running makes my mind crystal clear in a way that a thunderdome or a quiet place never could. I can't hear others easily when running. I can hear my feet pounding, my chest heaving, my breath rate rising. I need that repetition. When all is repetitive, and all is continuous, my thoughts flow like nothing else. Movement is insanely necessary for life. Even I, the running lover, underestimate the power that physical stress has over you. When you control your body in such a way that whips it past pain and strengthens it like crazy, it makes you stronger emotionally. You've learned that control physically, and it continues over in to the emotional world. Many people without physical control lack emotional control, and vice versa. My grandparents amaze me in this way. My grandmother, "Grammy", now 65, still makes us all food and clears brush at their cabin whenever she gets the chance. My grandfather, "Gramps", now 71, still takes out his four-wheeler and chainsaw for firewood on the 20 acres they own surrounding the cabin. That is the kind of hard work they've done all throughout their lives scaled down. That is their restful times, and I believe it is because they've found peace within the work. That is where the effort running takes affects me.
My oasis is not one place. It's not one solitary thing or human creation that makes me feel calm. It's exactly that calm, peace, love. The feelings that make me feel as if I'm in one of the few safe places in the world, are actually everywhere. God provides them by making me realize how much I can rely on him and see the deep thoughts just go and go. He is truly amazing. The thoughts can come from any situation, small or large, calm or strenuous, boring or exciting. I need them, as we all do, and hope I always can identify them for what they are. My oasis is everywhere.
