Today I decided to go to Lady Bird Lake, on Valentine’s Day. I though it might be a fun little adventure to go on with a friend. That being said I was pretty happy that day, my stress levels from 1 to 10, where probably at a 4- since school is always in the back of my mind. We decided to walk there and sit in the little hill area below the hotels. It was a really nice day at around 70 degrees Fahrenheit. I decided to focus on one of the trees that were next to me.
To my dismay, I got easily distracted and began to notice all the commotion going on around me. There were people paddling on the lake, teasing each other that they were going to push each other off the paddleboard. There were about four couples near us. They were having picnics, near the lake (romantic indeed), and there were little kids running around. In particular there was a little girl that got my attention, she was rolling down the hill. At first, I was concerned because it seemed dangerous but then I heard her mother encouraging her to do it again. This is when I realized that the girl was laughing, hysterically. The mother was also laughing and smiling.
I turned to see the other people and sure enough there was not a single person in the entire area that did not have a smile on their face. The bikers and runners, who even seemed lonesome running alone on Valentine’s Day, had smiles on their faces. 
What surprised me the most was that nobody had his or her cellphone out (except for me- I was taking pictures and such). Everyone was looking at the lake, the trees, their family, or at their partners. It was nature, the lake, and the romanticized idea of being outdoors that brought these people together- and happy. It was as Leopold said “Our ability to perceive quality in nature begins, as in art, with the pretty. It expands through successive stages of the beautiful to values as yet uncaptured by language.” (96). These people, all of us, sought nature because of its “pretty”, of its romance. Without explanation or agreement- the beauty of the lake, the softness of the grass, the coolness of the shadows provided by the tree brought people together into a happier place, where not even technology could intrude. Without words or explanations nature told all of us to all go there and be happy. It gave us happiness. With this idea I was not even thinking about school anymore- even if for a fleeting moment, my stress levels went down to even a 2. It was insane.