I wouldn’t consider The Hunger Games movies to be particularly calming, but as we explored the area where the movies were filmed, I felt very relaxed.

A week before we drove up there, I wouldn’t have guessed that we would be spending Memorial Day weekend in the mountains of North Carolina. While I find mountains to be beautiful, we rarely make plans to travel to them. Our vacations usually involve visiting cities, where there are plenty of things to do.

When some friends offered to let us stay in their mountain cabin, it was a welcome excuse to try a different kind of vacation. To explore new terrain. To get a fresh perspective.

The weather was ideal as we drove through Pisgah National Forest, the place where some of The Hunger Games scenes were filmed.

I live in my head more than I’d like to admit, and being somewhere new can sometimes make me feel like I’m existing in a different world, like I’ve stepped into the reality of a movie. But seeing Pisgah National Forest didn’t make me feel like I was “in” The Hunger Games. We didn’t have people chasing us. We were able to eat dinner at a restaurant. We didn’t have to worry about our basic survival.

I thought about the fact that people can experience the same scenery in completely different ways. To one person, visiting a location can be negative–a waste of time, stressful, painful. Yet another person at that same location may be feeling very positive–happy, excited, at peace.

Sometimes I wonder, do we choose how we experience a location? Or do we simply react to each environment that we find ourselves in, as if we were dropped into “games” that had been created for us?

A similar question could be asked about life. Are we experiencing life the way we’ve chosen to or are we simply reacting to life as if it is out of our control?

What do you think?