Without these places, this book would not exist

 Jennie Odell - How to Do Nothing

In collecting my Thoughts for this book, I spent countless hours in Bay Area parks -- not only in the Rose Garden, but Purisima Creek Redwoods Preserve, Joaquin Miller Park, Sam McDonald County Park, the Pearson-Arastradero Preserve, Henry W. Coe State Park, Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, Jackson Demonstrations State Forest, and the Forest of Nisene Marks State Park.  I am speaking literally when I say that without those places, this book would not exist. I went to them not just to escape the landscape of productivity, but to collect different ideas and observations that could never have been mine otherwise. If you have enjoyed reading this, then in some senses you have enjoyed those places, too.