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This week's Life Note, finding solace in a spirit of place.

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Music.

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Welcome to Life Notes from Chair 17, a podcast dedicated to sharing life stories,

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wisdoms and inspirations as we navigate life's journey.

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Host CH aims to share thoughtful perspectives and insights from her own life

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journey, as as well as those of special guests and contributors.

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Tune in for thoughtful conversations about lessons learned, wisdoms gained,

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experiences had, and inspirations shared.

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Find us where you get your podcasts and be sure to hit follow or subscribe so

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you never miss an episode. Now enjoy this week's episode.

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Music.

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All righty, welcome back in, friends, to another episode of Life Notes from Chair17.

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I'm your host, CH, and I thank you once again, as always, for finding me in

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this corner of the podcast universe. As always, I'd like to start off by thanking our returning C-17ers for your

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continued support and tuning in each week.

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This does include our international C-17ers, so thank you all for checking us out around the globe.

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But if you are just tuning in for the first time, maybe you have just found

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us on one of the major podcast platforms or via our website out on LifeNotesFromChair17Podcast.com.

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A warm welcome in to you. Thank you for wanting to check us out.

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Hope you like what you hear and you will want to continue to tune in so i am

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actually sitting down to record this episode after having been away for a few

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weeks i know that in the virtual posting of episodes world you wouldn't know

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that but i actually have just gotten back from being out.

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On a bit of a holiday or vacation. And I do confess it seems weird to say this

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because as listeners know, I am currently navigating being unemployed.

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So I didn't exactly have to request time off from a job as I would normally do.

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And I think sometimes I associate being on on a holiday or on vacation with

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that notion of having to take time off from work, which was obviously not the case this time around.

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And I did actually book this trip back in January, and that was before I had been laid off.

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And as I was thinking about all of the trips I wanted to book for this year,

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this is really the only one I did not cancel as a result of the job loss,

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because it is an important trip, and it is one that I make every year.

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And this year, it seems to have come at a really important time,

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perhaps maybe even more important

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than it has ever rubberpin and with even

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greater significance given a lot has

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changed for me since I last visited in

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the summer of 2023 unexpected loss of a colleague unexpected loss of a job trying

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to figure out what is next in this or at this juncture in my life so it's probably an understatement to

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say that energy reserves have been running low or lower than in previous years

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when getting ready for this trip. And yet at the same time, I did have to remind myself in getting ready for the

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trip, I actually deliberately booked it to be in the middle of June.

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To align with a new tradition that I'm trying to do, which is celebrating a

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half-birthday, since my birthday is actually in December.

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And obviously this hit right in the six-month mark.

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So this trip, there was quite, I would say, a lot of mixed into the premise

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of this trip before I even really got on the road to go.

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And as is often the case with some of the episodes on this podcast,

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this trip does and has inspired this episode because it is one of those life

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experience moments that bring forward a concept to share with some of you maybe

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that you've never heard of it, to describe a favorite place or the importance of a particular place.

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And that term is spirit of place.

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Now, I was trying to remember when I first heard this term,

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and I actually believe it was from a former

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coworker many years ago who mentioned it to me as he was describing his own

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favorite place to visit and how the experience is more of a deep connection versus, Versus, say,

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maybe just getting away and getting out and taking a quick set of days or time off kind of a thing.

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Not that there's anything wrong with that, but in the way that he was describing

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his place and as I was describing this place, he goes, oh, that's your spirit

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of place. And I was like, what?

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What is that? And for whatever reason, it stuck with me because I love phrases like that.

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And it hit me in the right spot in my heart, I think.

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And I've carried the term with me for however many years now to describe exactly that feeling that,

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feeling that you get when you truly connect with a place in which you visit,

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you live, maybe it's both. It could be a favorite vacation spot. It could be where you grew up.

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It could be a very significant place to a large group of people,

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or maybe it's just yours and yours alone.

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And if you listen to our Share the Chair episode that we did with Ellie Cornell,

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You will know that we talked a lot about the spirit of place of Nantucket Island,

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Massachusetts, given we both have a love of being on that island,

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but from different points of view. So she has a long history of having grown up on it, while I have only ever just

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been a visitor or a tourist.

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And yet we both have a sense of its spirit and how that helps our soul or rejuvenate

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our energy in our own separate ways.

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And as I prepped to record this episode,

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I tried to look for a specific definition to share with all of you in case you've

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never heard this or you're now very curious and you think of a place and go, yeah, you know what,

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XYZ is my spirit of place.

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So Wikipedia defines the term spirit of place as the unique,

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distinctive, and cherished aspects of a place.

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And it is as much in the invisible weave of culture—stories,

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art, memories, beliefs.

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Histories—as it is the tangible, physical aspects of a place—monuments, boundaries.

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Rivers, woods, architectural style, etc.,

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or the interpersonal aspects, presence of relatives, friends, kindred spirits, etc.

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I will put a link to where I pulled that from and kind of combined and summarized

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how Wikipedia defines a spirit of place, but in reading that definition,

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that is very much true for me in Truckee, California, and I call it my most

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spirited of spirit of places.

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Now, for those of you who may not know where that is, it is essentially,

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let's call it the town next to Lake Tahoe up in the Sierra Nevada mountain range

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of Northern California. Now, Lake Tahoe is often the city that gets It's the most attention in this

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particular area of California. But for those that know the benefits of sometimes escaping where all the masses

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go, Truckee appeals on a lot of levels to a lot of folks, not just me.

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But it is the place that I continue to return to year after year,

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given it is and holds a very special place in my heart.

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Now, even though let's say it's next door to Lake Tahoe,

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I would be lying and doing it a disservice if I didn't say that it,

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of course, has gone through its own share of growth challenges in the last several years,

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really driven by the pandemic and, of course, the shift to remote work or working from anywhere,

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potentially some exodus out of the Bay Area of California, All of which contributed

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to, let's call it a, I believe, I think the population doubled.

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The place where I stay, she talked about it back in 2022. They went from.

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You know, I think something like 15,000 people in the town to 30.

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It's probably even larger now. And it was seemingly overnight.

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And it's been a real challenge for them to support that level of growth spurt,

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having really always been a very small and quaint mountain town.

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And even for me, as someone who has been visiting, I traced it back,

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I've been visiting now for about, a decade even I can see the change but

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all of that to say it doesn't necessarily

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detract from the connection that

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I feel when I visit and in fact a lot

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of folks who know me best have now started to call this my my home and I will

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say to those of you that out there that are listening and do that for me it

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does make me smile because I love to think that it is but technically it's not

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because I really, I was not born or raised there.

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Quite opposite, really. I was actually born and raised in Southern California.

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So I wasn't even born or raised in Northern California, let alone in Truckee.

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And if I'm being super honest, technically, my first experiences with the Sierra

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Nevadas was nowhere near the Lake Tahoe area.

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It actually started further south in the town of Mammoth Lakes,

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where I did spend a lot of winter holidays as a young kid skiing with my family

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on, let's say, you know, winter break or spring break.

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So I can't even take credit for having or

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credit I don't know if credit's the right word I can't take any

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connection as being when I

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was younger or we used to go there when I was a kid because we

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were going to a completely different part of the Sierras not

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too far away it's about three hours south Mammoth

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is from Lake Tahoe but it's really in 2012 I was actually inspired to make my

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very first trip to Truckee through a chance meeting with someone who lived and

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worked in the town and of whom learned of my own,

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let's call it, nerd hobby appreciation of the history of the area because I

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do consider myself a history buff or a history nerd or I sometimes like to call

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myself student of history. And as a result of that chance meeting, I have visited nearly every year since

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then, except for the broken ankle year and, of course, the pandemic years.

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So there was a gap there between, I think, 2019.

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It was the last time I went and then resumed in 2022.

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While it is certainly a place that provides an infinite supply of all the kinds

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of outdoor adventuring that I do love to do.

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So hiking, cycling, stand-up paddleboarding, really

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it has become much more of

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a place for me to recharge my soul through a certain stillness and presence

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of just being there and to really be reminded of the truest essence of myself,

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whether I am adventuring or not.

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And this recharge is in conjunction with what I feel is a very pronounced spirit

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of place that Truckee holds.

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All on its own, given its history and where it is situated.

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So for those who aren't familiar, the pioneers,

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the wagon trains of the mid-1800s walked their wagons up over the summit and

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down into what is now Sacramento and the Bay Area of California.

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There was also transcontinental trains crisscrossing the summit to the first

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cars that wound their way up. what is now called, well, it was called then too,

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the Lincoln Highway or Old Highway 40. It's really in layman's terms, and this is my own layman's terms referring to

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it this way, so anyone from Truckee listening might be, why should you call it that?

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To me, it's a unique junction.

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It's almost like a gateway, if you will, or a crossroads, perhaps.

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And there is also a certain irony to the fact that it has become known,

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really, as such a beautiful place to take a vacation or to recreate,

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given it does have its own beginnings really defined by a fairly significant tragedy.

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And for those who may not be familiar, this is actually where the pioneer near

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wagon train known as the Donner Party became snowbound during the winter of 1846 and 1847.

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And they reached the area too late to avoid the first snowfall of the winter

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and were unable to make it safely over the summit down into what is now present-day Sacramento.

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And sidebar for for any history, fellow history nerds out there,

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they miss that window by one day.

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So, one single day, had they gotten there a day earlier, they could have gotten

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over. One day later, not so much.

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And so, what's interesting about that, and I can link to some information out

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there, the Donner Party, for those who might be interested, or just the history

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of Truckee in general, I'll put some links out there in the show notes.

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There are namesake reminders of that particular, let's call it moment,

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in which you could say Truckee was kind of put on the historical map.

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It's everywhere. Donner Peak, Donner Lake, Donner Summit, Donner Pass,

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Donner Memorial State Park. And another sidebar, as a student of history and having grown up in California,

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we learned a lot about pioneer history, specifically the Oregon Trail,

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the California Trail history. The Gold Rush-Sutter's Fort history, all of our indigenous tribes to the West

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Coast history and just general westward migration history was taught a lot to us at the time.

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I was going in and through elementary and middle school because our state was

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technically the center of it or the destination of this particular period of time.

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And for me, I do remember that as a child, when I would be sitting in the backseat

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of the car on these super long drives up to Mammoth Lakes, I would look at these mountains going,

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so how did people actually get over those?

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And from that point

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forward that's kind of where the seed was planted

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that I have always had sort of

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this interest in this particular area of

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California and I do believe it is what has drawn me even more so to the area

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of of Truckee I go to visit sure

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absolutely but when I do I tend to pay a certain homage while I'm there.

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And I do try to leave myself open to embrace the spirit that resonates through

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the different parts of the town and the people and the surroundings,

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both past and present, and both those who migrated and settled and of those who are the original.

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Indigenous stewards of the land. And that's partly a loving appeal that I had.

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I would say, grown over the decade that I've been traveling there.

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You can walk along the main high street and you can easily imagine being in

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a different time, given so many of the buildings are very cool historical landmarks.

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You can also then find yourself way

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high up on trail on your own with spectacular

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vistas that just seem to get larger and more

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vast depending on which angle you look at them

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from and how far your legs can carry

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you that day and it is just in for

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me it's there's nothing quite like it and i

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do remember back in 2018 after

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having done a really beautiful but lengthy day hike along what is known as the

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pacific crest trail that does cut through the high pass of truckee i i did wander

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back into town after the hike i was in all of my gear and my boots and my pack and everything.

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And I came across this postcard from one of my favorite shops in town.

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And I still have it. And I have it when I was working. And I had it on my desk.

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And I have it in another place now in my house.

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And it reads, my feet are tired, but my soul is awake.

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And for me, none truer words are ever spoken, I think, given this is often how

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I feel when I visit this place. And especially when I find myself having a conversation with someone who lives

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there or someone who might be visiting and also seems to be embracing this spirit of place,

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it forms this instant connection and this mutual appreciation. And...

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I always love that this does happen every time I visit. So there is some new

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connection. There is some new appreciation.

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There is something that I have never seen before. Maybe there's something I've never known before.

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And as I've gotten older and as I think about places in which to visit and travel,

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I have a list, but I am consistently drawn back to Truckee for this sense of

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its spirit of place and how that reaches me very personally.

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Of the peace that it brings, of the connection that it provides,

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of the soulful recharge that it offers.

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And I do have aspirations to travel to other parts of the world that I have yet to experience.

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I have always wanted to visit New Zealand and Australia.

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I have not had the chance to do that yet. I really hope to finally one day make it over to the UK,

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which I'm ashamed to say I haven't done yet and explore everything from,

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let's say, Scottish Highlands to the southwest coast of Devon and Cornwall to

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the Yorkshire Dales to anything and everything in London.

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Or maybe one day I'll be able to finally get over to some place in Italy that

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is close to the ocean, Maybe someplace in Sicily, I don't know,

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where I can wake up and walk out my door and paddle the Mediterranean.

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That would be kind of a dream. Or perhaps I'll be able to visit Paris at least once in my life,

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given its extraordinary beauty, and perhaps finally put those years of high

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school French to good use. But right now all of those places they

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really are bucket list items for me right they are a wish list of travel to

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do's with me perhaps awaiting maybe a similar moment of inspiration to finally

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book one of those trips to build a new connection or maybe a new spirit of place

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or of peace or free charge but I.

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For now, Truckee, or Donner Country as those closest to me know that I like

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to call it, remains my go-to place, my trusted and most spirited of places to rest,

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to refocus, to refuel, and to reset, and to embrace my soul being very wide

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awake, even if my legs are tired. inspired.

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So there you have it. How and what spirit of place and embracing a spirit of

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place means to me. Do you have one? A most spirited of spirit of places that you often visit or return to? If so, let me know.

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Would love to hear where that is and what it means to you.

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And with that, as always, I ask you to be kind to yourself.

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Take it one hour at a time, one day at a time, and I will see you next time.

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Music.

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Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Life Notes from Chair17.

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Remember to follow and subscribe so you never miss an episode.

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Music.