Everyone Needs A ‘Quiet Place.’ Where Is Yours?

The stress of work and life sometimes can get to the point where you need to just 'take a break' and get away from it all.

Just like Winnie the Pooh had his thinking spot, we should all have a 'quiet place.' That one location where we can just relax, unwind and shut the world out for a bit. It can really do a world of good physically and, even more important, mentally.

My quiet place has always been my family's lake cabin on Georges Pond in Franklin, Maine.

When I was younger, I loved to go there and play in the lake, hike in the woods and do a little fishing. It's funny because the ONLY fish I caught as a kid were sunfish.

I left Maine for the first time in 1984 and returned from 2003-2006 and on one of my first visits back to the cabin I caught my first real fish off the rocks. As you can see in the picture, I was quite proud of myself.

When I moved back to Maine from Albuquerque, New Mexico, my favorite weekends were when I'd drive down to the cabin. The place hadn't changed that much over the years, but my wife and I did some remodeling inside. We put insulation in the walls, added paneling and even laid carpet. We kept everything else the same.

What I loved about those weekends were falling asleep to the calming effect of the lake, the woodpecker that was doing his thing on the pole outside and the frogs croaking. Every once in a while I'd hear a fish splash as it tried to catch the flies skimming on the waters' surface.

Another cool part was there was no TV or cellphone service, so it was very tranquil and quiet. As I'm writing this I can feel the day-to-day stress slowly being replaced with a calming peace of mind.

Since I don't get back to Maine that often, I need to find a new quiet place out here, so if you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.