Where do you get your energy?

I went to Seattle this past weekend for a wedding.   When I told my friends I was heading to the luscious PNW (pacific northwest), the responses ranged from, "oh, its cold there" to "doesnt it rain there all the time?" to "I cant live without the sun."    Well, folks, yes it rains and yes its cold..  (it peaked at 60 while I was there and it snowed 2 weeks ago) and yes, we (current and former Seattlites) rank the weather by looking at the skies... there are light gray days and then there are the dark gray days, but i loved it!!!   I actually enjoyed the morning walk with my sister-in-law, cozied up in my comfy sweatpants and my fluffy scarf, trying to find the neighboring houses hiding behind the 30-foot deep walls of trees as we walked her dog on a leash... We counted slugs on the road with my 4 year old son.. there were 24 slugs within 20 feet while on the 'slug hunt'.   The skies were (get this)... blue! with patchy clouds and the air was crisp ...I could smell the bark on the trees, the carpeted-grass lawns and we heard a woodpecker busy at work on a 100 foot tall EVERGREEN tree.

(sigh)

As I was lost in this peaceful and tranquil moment, I found myself wanting to run.. and run and run some more. I felt so alive!  so energized..  so ... so ready to just go..   Somehow, I survived on 5 hours of sleep a night and still managed to paint a perma-smile on my face for 3 days, partake in good, intellectual and constructive conversation, and exude the kindness and love of Mother Theresa to anyone and everyone who crossed my path.   It was such a refreshing feeling.

I returned home to sunny skies, 90 degree weather with a slight breeze to cut the warmth on your back, and got settled back into the more-than-comfortable house we call home..  it is one

house among many in a neighborhood whose house paint colors range from light tan to dark tan...  our house isnt the one with the red front door and the flower bushes at the end of the 50-foot driveway, but the 5th one on the right..  all the houses in our 'hood look alike, so they are identified by placement, not a unique characteristic.. 

After being home for a day, I realized I was tired. I had no energy.  I had no motivation to call anyone.. to do the laundry, to make my bed or hit the gym.  What was wrong with me?  I started to think about what fuels me with energy..  

The shades of brown, both inside my house and within the neighborhood, drain me of my inner juices..  I feel sucked dry.  in fact,  the first night I was home, I had a dream of big, overgrown, green, leafy trees wilting and then the trunks bursting into flames.. what is THAT about?   not good.   

(sigh)

So as i get back into my life..  my daily routine... and tend to the things that need tending to, I am trying to envision the wall of cypress evergreen trees along the 6-foot tall, medium tan-colored cinderblock cell-wall in our back yard, AND...I am enjoying the email from my sister-in-law who said the frog that my son was looking for at the front door every 3 hours finally showed up the day after we left.  And hopefully....  I will dream of slugs tonight.