Wide Open View

North Carolina has plenty of trees. As a tree lover, I would certainly not complain. But sometime, I would have a strong urge to pull these trees away, or split them apart, because they block my view. I want to see through, see what's behind, and I want to shift my attention away from details of near view, land my focus on something as distant as horizon.

Today, after being sick home for a few days, this urge resurfaced without anticipation. Books and internet suddenly became so boring that I could barely stand them. I had to go out.

The ever-changing water waves. 

Atlantic Ocean is 3 hours away, so I chose Jordan Lake instead, which is merely over 15 minutes driving from my home. It was already late, after 4:30pm, but my need to be with open nature was so strong that I would go out even it's dark night. I had already prepared some green tea, so I quickly changed, took my tea and my camera and rushed out. 5 minutes later I was on country road toward the lake.

Only a little more than a few minutes driving my eyes were rewarded by an large farmland. As soon as the farm jumped in view, I felt my focus was widened and my unconscious stress was relieved. The comfort by such a simple view brought me a rush of joy, reassured my spontaneous action. I saw two handsome horses grazed leisurely behind fence. They just had no idea how much I wanted to hug them. I tried to stop somewhere to take pictures, but there was nowhere to park. So I drove on.

Late afternoon Sunshine broke clouds.

About another 5 minutes driving, I saw the water, the open view of Jordan Lake. My heart started singing. Soon after I arrived at beach. I could not wait to touch water. Quickly parked, I walked straight to the shore, put my hands inside water. As promised, the flow of coolness and softness were transmitted to all my body. Then I lowered my head, almost touched sand, looked toward water from the low view point. I got what I really wanted - my eyes traveled through water surface to the infinite emptiness of sky, so free and relaxing that I literally felt I was flying in the sky. I rotated my head and body in several different directions, just trying to look at the view from different angles, and each of them were indeed amazed me in different ways. Finally I found a stone that I could sit on. So I sat there, absorbed the wide open view in silence.

A dog swam back to the shore after
capturing a piece of wood.

The beach was quiet. Probably because it was a weekday and already late. There wasn't even a boat on lake. The only human beings I saw was a couple of young lovers sitting in distance. They were wise to come here at this time, so I thought. They had a dog, who moved around excitingly, barked a few times which broke the silence. Later I saw the guy throwing a piece of wood toward water, the dog instantly jumped into water, swam to capture the wood and swam back. I quickly got my camera and captured the moment.

It has been cloudy all day long, but when I stayed at beach, a few sunbeams broke clouds, brightened empty lake. The most part of view waw still gray but the west side was touched by some warm pinkish color. The light flashed on the water surface. How the water played with it was the most fascinating. I do not remember how long I stared at water waves, bewildering its puzzling illusory motion, which forever shifted away from the focus, led my thought into a farther, wider yet more shapeless enigma.

I went back before dark. The satisfaction made me feel OK to be indoor again. The rest of evening was quiet, which reflected the quiet moment at lake. Later, after I edited the photos I took, I found the only thing I wanted to do was writing down my short trip, extending the joy I felt under the wide open sky.