Where is your happy place?

While checking out a food order in my local supermarket, the cashier and I made small talk about the exquisitely beautiful day.

I said I was going to put it to good use by taking a nature walk. The cashier said she was looking forward to quitting time when she could visit her "happy place" before she goes home.

She said her happy place is a small neighborhood park where she can enjoy the peace and quiet and recharge her batteries.

Then she asked if I had a favorite "happy place." I told her I have a lot of them.

After I left the store I kept thinking about all the happy places I've had over the years.

When I was a young, single adult, my friends and I went to a favorite resort in the Poconos as often as we could afford it. We stayed four in a room so we could afford to stay there every other weekend.

We would go horseback riding, hiking along the river and then meet up with other young people in the resort's club.

All of that was fun, of course, but that wasn't my happy place. When I went to my happy place, I went alone.

During the day I often enjoyed leaving my friends so I could take the resort's old rowboat out on the river. I rowed over to a small island in the middle of the river that never had any other sign of civilization.

It was my favorite happy place a spot where I could recharge my batteries, spin a few daydreams, write in my journal, and just rejoice in being alive.

Years later I learned I didn't have to travel to a resort to find my happy place. I learned I could create a happy place in my own backyard.

When the contractor excavated big boulders while digging the foundation of our home, he piled the boulders around the house because they were too big to move. It made for an ugly backyard until I planted dozens of rose bushes around the rocks.

When I added a small waterfall, a pond with koi fish, a pussy willow tree and many beautiful flowers, that spot was transformed into a relaxing, beautiful setting.

It became my happy place where I would sit in a rocker and drink in the serenity of my surroundings. After work each day I went there to recharge my batteries. After dinner, I went back to my happy place to listen to the mesmerizing sound of the waterfall. It was more relaxing than any tranquilizer could be.

Spending just a short while in your own special happy place can improve your mood, revive your energy and make you feel that all is right with the world.

I created my own happy place in work, too. I added a big corkboard to the wall of my office and pinned on photos representing my favorite assignments. A favorite photo of a black bear hanging from a tree and small bear cubs snuggled against my father's chest made me smile whenever I saw them.

If I was having a tough or tiring day, all I had to do was to look at my happy board and I would feel better.

When I moved to Florida, again I found a happy place in my backyard. This time, I didn't have to do anything to create it. Nature did all the work for me.

The lagoon in my backyard is a tranquil setting that attracts wonderful birds and wildlife. The rising sun turns the water red as each new day dawns. When the sun comes out it turns the water into sparking jewels. Best yet for a nature lover like me, day and night there is always something worth watching.

The woman who owned the home before me told me it was impossible to be depressed in such a soothing setting. She was right.

I never tire of the happy place in my own backyard.

Last week I interviewed an interesting biologist who is one of the volunteers working hard each day to turn a former golf course into a nature preserve. He's working the equivalent of a full-time job helping to create a marvelous butterfly garden, a native plant area and marshland that attracts all sorts of wildlife.

Obviously, he's a nature lover who thrives on being outdoors.

I asked him if the nature preserve was his happy place.

He says he doesn't have just one happy place.

"There is beauty everywhere," he insists. "You can find a happy place wherever you look.

"Whether it's a dry desert, a lush meadow or a mountain range, nature gives us so many places to enjoy.

"They can all be a happy place," the biologist says, "if we take the time to appreciate what is there."

He thinks many people don't spend much time outdoors. Instead, they rush from air-conditioned cars to air-conditioned homes, missing the grandeur of the great outdoors.

It's possible, of course, to create a happy place indoors, just as I did when I worked at the newspaper office. But for nature lovers like me, there is much more to see and appreciate outdoors.

The supermarket clerk asked me a question I'll now ask you:

Where is your favorite happy place?