Unplugged and unbothered: Best spots in the Tri-Cities to sit and relax
Remember the importance of “quiet time” for a stressed child in school or at home? Turns out, it’s a practice we should embrace ourselves for a lifetime.
For the most part, my wife and I are on the move — mostly walking the area’s great trails or the indoor track at the Persinger Recreation Center in Geneva when the weather chases us inside.
We certainly don’t sit and relax in a quiet setting too often, if ever. That’s a mistake.
There is a major benefit in sitting and relaxing these days, a simple practice that clears the mind and aids in mental health. There is much to be said for sitting in the outdoors and taking in the fresh air and enjoying the nature and life around us — preferably with our cellphones getting only an occasional glance, or none at all.
Recent information from “A Mission for Michael,” a California-based mental health treatment center, identified Illinoisans’ favorite places to decompress. The organization surveyed 3,200 respondents across the country about the places they seek in their state’s cities when they just want stillness.
The message the organization is sending is more important than the survey results, meaning any local mental health agency would support the notion that quiet time to ourselves is vital.
“Sometimes, the healthiest thing a person can do is step away for a half hour and sit somewhere that asks nothing of them,” the survey release states. “No conversation. No small talk. No screen-demanding attention. No pressure to be ‘on.’”
Before sharing A Mission for Michael’s findings about the top five places in the state, let’s consider the best places for this sort of decompressing in the Tri-Cities.
During the years I took the train into Chicago for work, I would see an older couple sitting on a bench near the Rain Man statue at the Geneva Metra Station. These folks just sat and relaxed every day while watching the rest of us head off to our grinds.
It might qualify as a good place to sit and relax, or maybe it was just a good spot for “people watching.”
With that in mind, places considered excellent for sitting and relaxing could be right in the middle of our cities, or out in the parks. It would depend on whether one was seeking quiet, other than the sound of birds, or if watching people and cars provides a relaxing experience.
In Batavia, a bench overlooking the Depot Pond, the Riverwalk and band shell area offers a nice view of the Fox River, looking north. Not always a quiet spot, but just very pleasant.
In that same area, the gazebo benches off the trail near the Riverrain Apartments also provide a nice view of the river, and a quieter setting.
In Geneva, plenty of benches are set along Third Street, if watching other people navigate that shopping district helps you relax. Someone at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Geneva must have been thinking along these lines, as the society provided some new benches with a shelter from sun or rain on Third Street.
At Fabyan Forest Preserve in Geneva, some benches located right along the riverfront seem perfect for this sort of decompressing. We have often seen people taking advantage of these benches. Some preserve visitors sit in their cars for a period of time, just looking at the river and trees.
The survey pointed out that quiet time alone in your car is an excellent way to relax — even if it is just an extra 10 minutes in the garage when coming home from work or other tasks.
Many benches are also perched along the Freedom Walk in St. Charles around the Municipal Center and north into Pottawatomie Park. The view to the west of the Fox River, the dam and the Hotel Baker property creates a nice setting.
For potentially the quietest reflection areas, some benches by the barns in LeRoy Oakes Forest Preserve in St. Charles can leave one quietly alone with nature. You don’t always have to find a bench to sit on at any of the forest preserves, as a lawn chair will do. If you move about LeRoy Oakes toward Ferson Creek, you may find the most serene area to be alone with your thoughts.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about how Mount St. Mary Park in St. Charles is our favorite for walking. Well, ditto, for relaxing on the benches. This park probably has more benches than most others. It is a busy park with joggers, walkers and dog walkers, but it would be easy to just sit and relax.
One of the closest benches to the Fox River in the area can be found at Mount St. Mary, perched right near one of the park’s boat launch areas. But with the Fox River hitting flood levels the past couple of weeks, this one was partially under water.
A Mission for Michael’s survey cited the Riverwalk in Naperville as the No. 1 favorite spot in Illinois for quiet time alone, especially in the morning.
Others cited as favorites included the Phillips Park Sunken Garden in Aurora, Ping Tom Memorial Park in Chicago, Davis Park at Founders Landing in Rockford and Billie Limacher Bicentennial Park in Joliet.
Considering 34% of respondents said they feel the need to find a place to relax and decompress every day, and 18% said they do so at least once a week, there is a simple truth unfolding for most of us.
Find a quiet place to relax alone for a half hour, ignore social media, and do your mental health a big favor.
Spreading word in China
It’s been more than a decade since I wrote about Rolf and Sherri Ronstadt’s ministry in bringing Christian teachings to China.
Sherri has since passed, but Rolf continues to keep his friends in the Tri-Cities area informed through a newsletter and blog about his work in China through the International Ambassadors for Christ, of which he and Sherri served as directors.
Most recently, Ronstadt wrote about the tribes in China that are not even recognized by the government as one of the country’s minorities. He says 90% of China’s minority groups have never heard the word of the Gospel.
He expresses how fortunate he has been to experience this “hidden” China, of which as many as 200 million people live — in a country of 1.4 billion people.
As has been his mission for nearly 40 years, Ronstadt is hoping for more people to get engaged in helping bring the Christian faith to countries like China — especially the minorities never exposed to its teachings.
Having never been to China, it’s impossible for me to say what sort of obstacles stand in the way of people like Ronstadt in a country that keeps pretty tight reins on its people. So, it takes a lot of passion to stick with this ministry.
Mostly, I have found it interesting that this couple from St. Charles and Batavia, with its organization operating out of Batavia, could make China its mission for so long.
Did you know?
In 1989, cities in Kane County were just starting to consider what to do with a growing waste problem that was going to see the new Settler’s Hill landfill in Geneva reach its capacity by 2010.
Riding on the momentum built through the Illinois Solid Waste Management Act in 1986 that created more landfills, local officials began contemplating next steps.
Landfill creation became less desirable, though certainly needed. State and local officials generally agreed that organized recycling programs would be beneficial, but not as much as what they considered a top priority: creating less waste.
Laws soon came on the books that called for companies to establish recycling programs on the premises, so employees having bins for paper products in addition to their garbage cans became common. Other legislation established percentages of waste that had to be recycled in a city, based on its size.
When officials at Settler’s Hill landfill, which started operations in 1982, said that 37% of the waste buried at the landfill was paper, the movement in the late ’80s and early ’90s was clearly designed to address paper recycling. That eventually included cardboard, plastic bags and bottles.
The effort continues to this day, with cities encouraging consumers to stop using plastic bags at grocery stores and raising their awareness with systems to rate and label recyclable products to help consumers make recycling decisions.
It was all designed to extend the life of all landfills in the state, though Settler’s Hill closed as a landfill in 2006 after 24 years.
Yet, Illinois has come a long way since the late 1980s, when only 11 communities had a curbside recycling program. State officials continue to push that effort, saying a few years ago that the state recycles only 37% of its waste.