Find some time this week to connect with an environment that speaks to you creatively. It doesn’t have to be a museum gallery or a library, where artistic wares are housed and displayed. Save those venues for when winter weather makes such places inviting. The waning summer days encourage us to get out and explore those examples of artistic endeavor found outside our doors.

I am fortunate enough to live a short drive, or lengthier bike ride, away from Jack London State Park, in the Valley of the Moon, California. London founded this site, called Beauty Ranch, with proceeds from his own artistic endeavors. If we should all be so blessed. He envisioned establishing a working ranch that embodied socialist principles along the eastern ridge of Sonoma Mountain. He built improvements to the land, such as a pig palace. This is a conical structure in which hogs were raised in the round, with the most cutting-edge technology of the time. London also built a massive stone house which unfortunately burned to the ground before he could ever inhabit it. There is a whiff of tragedy about the whole place, but the sentiment also seems to foster a sense of romance surrounding the environs.

But the intervention that I appreciate the most is the dam he constructed across a gap in the hills, just about a mile northwest of the ranch houses and outbuilding further down the slope. This little dam, maybe one hundred feet across, established a small lake, to be used as a swimming hole for his guests. There is even a humble changing cabin located on the eastern edge of the lake. The lake is now drowsy with cattails and willow, creeping toward the center of the pond.

Whenever I feel a little bit taxed creatively, I head to this lake. I make a point of circumnavigating the water, starting out by crossing the stone dam and then heading in a counterclockwise direction through the duff under white oak trees. I stay away from the water’s edge at this point, as I have learned from unhappy prior experiences that a dense stand of stinging nettle has taken root in the moist soil near the lapping water. There is no marked trail around the lake, so it becomes a little challenging to chart one’s own course. But I like the fact that I am creating my own path, it puts me in a place of heightened senses and greater expectancy of encountering the unknown. I reach the grove of pine on the northern shore. This is where the bramble becomes the thickest, and I am always on the lookout for rattlesnakes curled in the litter of the leaves. Finally, the ramble gives way to a clearing dotted with madrone and more oak, where bathers once sunned themselves after an invigorating swim. I have made it full circle, as the narrow dam sits at the southern end of this clearing.

Over the years, I have established a relationship with this patch of land. I have traversed the terrain well enough to easily recall each of its inclines and slopes. I use this landscape in my meditation most every morning. I figuratively travel to this place almost every day, behind my closed eyes. I practice walking around the lake in my meditation, allowing the details that emerge to draw me deeper and deeper into a relaxed space where I can access goals and aspirations for whatever creative project I am working on in the moment. Visiting this landscape, even just with the mind’s eye, generates a sense of openness and calm abiding of the artistic process. I am primed to explore more of my creative pursuit that day.

Find that special place this week, somewhere near your own home, where you can feel at home in the universe. Maybe you already have a place that speaks to you, but you haven’t been there in a while. Or maybe you frequent a park nearby but have never integrated it into a meditation practice. See what happens when you visit this place in such a grounded state of mind. See what details emerge, both remembered and imagined.

• A few people have asked about the dog from last week’s posting. His name is Bowie, a Tibetan Spaniel, who weathers the August heat on top of the couch, which serves as his lookout. This inclination is deeply ingrained in this breed, as these dogs were used as sentries in the Buddhist monasteries in Tibet for generations. And more good news on the dog front — leashed dogs are allowed at Beauty Ranch, in areas that London developed before he passed away. Bowie always enjoys an outing to this lake.