Dr. Marvin Gene Newport

My Quiet Place has been a part of my life for 70 years. During those seven decades my Quiet Place been with me during both the joys and the sorrows of my life.

My Quiet Place started developing on a rather typical Sunday when I was 10 years old. Like many Sundays, my parents and I had enjoyed Sunday dinner at my Grandma and Grandpa Newport's house. They were farmers and every meal included bounty from what they raised on the farm, especially produce from their huge garden.

After dinner we moved chairs outside and spread quilts on the ground so we could lounge and enjoy the cooling shade under the large trees circling the front lawn. Unless it was raining, the things we did were part of every Sunday afternoon during the hot summer months. Yet, this Sunday proved to be quite different. Dad and Grandpa wanted to check the corn crop along the banks of a nearby creek. So off we went.

We stopped walking and rested in a shady spot where my fishing pole easily reached every inch of a clear pool of water in front of us. Dad and Grandpa talked as they sat on the grass behind me enjoying a cool breeze. I fished while they talked and took note of everything I saw and heard. Sunlight filtered through a canopy of leaves and branches formed by a large tree that shaded the area. Sunbeams danced on the water below. A bright blue sky with white fluffy clouds served as a backdrop for everything taking place below. The pool of water where I fished was clear and cool. Crawfish washed down the ripples if water was flowing from one pool of water to another. Small minnows shimmered when touched by sunbeams filtering through the trees. While admiring and making mental notes of everything I saw and heard, I continued fishing in the clear pool before me and finally caught a fish--a fish like none I had ever seen before. Dad called it a gar--a fish with a long shovel-like snout. It was little more than 12 inches long but helped make the day even more perfect for me.

Over the following 70 years I was never able to return to the grandparent's farm to experience once more the one Sunday that remains among my fondest memories of days gone by. Of course, time kept marching on during those seven decades.

My grandparents sold their farm and moved to town. Marriage and three children changed my life as did a career that took me and my family to different places and different responsibilities. With the continued march of time, other changes affected our family.

Our children completed college degrees, started their careers and gave us six beautiful grandchildren. My grandparents passed away, as did my parents, an only brother, and my wife of 43 years. But the cornucopia of everything that took place on that Sunday afternoon seven decades ago remains and forms my Quiet Place--a refuge where I go mentally to relax remember, recharge and return to a much simpler time in my life.