Downscaling.net

I cannot tell you how much being near water calms me. Much better than Klonopin or Prozac.

My in-laws have a three-bedroom condo on a lake in Indiana, my and my husband’s home state. Even though I have only been visiting here for six summers, it feels so much like home. Even when my in-laws drive me batty — they are elderly which is very much like living with small children that can drive — I cannot be in a grumpy mood when I am here.

On this lake, I find peace of mind.

We take my in-laws pontoon boat, a really delightful party barge, out almost every morning for a coffee cruise while the lake is still and quiet. The real estate around this lake is private property, and my in-laws condominium is the only multi-family dwelling here.

Except for a couple of marinas, a protected marsh area, a YMCA camp and a country club, the rest of the lake and its two smaller, connected lakes is surrounded by single unit homes.

And what an odd mix of homes it is.

There are little cottages and trailers that sit along side multi-million dollar mansions. All along the lake, you see castles made of imported stone towering over their next-door neighbor, a tiny bungalow barely bigger than the boat parked at the pier in front of it.

What I have noticed after six summers of cruising around this lake is that the bigger and more opulent the home, the less likely you will actually see any evidence that people are there and enjoying it. Mansion after mansion sits uninhabited, boats on the pier not even in the water, no indication that a single soul is seeing the breathtaking view from their over-sized, lakefront windows.

And this year, after a rough economy, you see a lot of “for sale” signs in the yards.

But the little places, the tiny homes that probably have no more than a couple of beds and maybe two bathrooms, they are buzzing with life. Kids and adults out enjoying the water, the sun, the beauty of this tiny oasis in the middle fertile farmland.

I don’t know if this means the people with loads of money have so many other options to occupy their time that these lake houses are just for occasional, drop-in use. Maybe they are so busy being successful, earning the piles of cash it takes to build these huge homes and buy these expensive toys, that they just can’t take time to enjoy them.

Or maybe they are here when the unwashed masses like me are not here.

Whatever. It’s there money, they can do what they want with it. It just seems a shame to me that such beautiful property is little more than an asset on a balance sheet.  And while the journalist in me always wonders what the story is behind each one these homes, both the massive and the miniature, I try not to dwell on it too much.

I am here now. I want to live in this moment. It makes me happy and helps me gain perspective.

And to paraphrase the great fictional sage of my generation, Ferris Bueller, life goes by pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around, you might miss it.