randy_byers | The Enchanted Isle (Reply)

I took another one of my trips out to La Push on the Olympic Peninsula, by way of Astoria, where I like to go to drink beer. It was good to get away from work, which has continued to be very stressful, but one of the things I unfortunately discovered is that my levels of anxiety continue to be very high after reaching catastrophic levels this past summer. One effect was that I wasn't able to do much hiking, because heavy exertion just seemed to amp up my nervous system. Very weird, because I would've expected it to be a release, but it seemed to have the opposite effect.

In any event, I did hike down Rialto Beach one day and spent some time sitting in the sun, which felt great. That's where I captured the picture above -- one of those storybook images the Olympic National Forest is so adept at presenting. The weather was unexpectedly sunny Sunday through Wednesday, but then on Thursday a storm blew in and dumped a ton of rain -- so much water that the river flooded, trapping me at the resort for an extra day. Although it threw me off my stride a bit having to juggle my plans, I wasn't too upset by having another day to read and lollygag.

Now I need to figure out how to get my stress levels under control. I actually don't think the causes of stress in my life right now are nearly as bad as they were in August, so I'm a little confused to find myself feeling so anxious. I suspect my nervous system still hasn't fully recovered from the earlier overload.