Last Sunday, someone sent me a nice, positive sentiment. It was an anonymous text message. This was the message, “Hope you’re surrounded by nice energy.”

I get these positive, anonymous messages occasionally. I suspect many of you do as well. My routine is to immediately delete such messages and block the sender. It’s great to have someone say something flattering to me, but how many secret admirers can one guy have?

The days are few and far between when I get a text from someone I know who writes something like, “Hey handsome! How are you doing today?” Though, I have had these anonymous “secret admirer” texters send that type of message.

I think most of us know that these kinds of random “buttering us up” type of messages from unidentified sources generally mean one thing. It’s a scam.

Someone somewhere is trying to get information to use against us. If they can start a friendly conversation, they have a chance of building trust and getting useful data.

Experts say to not respond to the messages and to block the sender. Don’t click on links that might be included in the message.

This last message I got hoping that I’m “surrounded by nice energy” got me thinking. (I know. Me thinking — dangerous.)

I wondered about the meaning that might be involved in “nice energy.” The first thing that came to mind was geography.

I researched the question, “Where are places with nice energy?” There were lots of results from that search on the internet. The first one I checked out was very interesting to me.

Of the ten places listed, I have been to four of them: Sedona, Arizona; San Francisco Bay Area, California; Stonehenge in England and the Mayan Ruins at Tulum, Mexico. Some of the other places on the list include the Great Pyramid at Giza, Machu Picchu in Peru and Mt. Shasta in California.

I feel like I should have been to Mt. Shasta in California. But maybe that’s just because I have been drinking Shasta soda pop since I was a kid.

I think perhaps that Mt. Shasta should be my next “nice energy” location to visit (more convenient to get to than Uluru, Australia.) Mt. Shasta is located a little south of Weed, California. I’m not sure if that’s significant.

The town of Mt. Shasta, population 3,223 (2020), has a Buddist temple, a KOA campground, and a Spiritual Tours company. That all sounds good to me. Plus, the mountain itself, at 14,179 feet elevation, is spectacular.

The origin of the name of the mountain is vague. I’m just going to have to assume it was named after the long established, historic soda pop. There may or may not be early reports of the area’s natives enjoying root beer at the time of the first European explorers. (I might not be kidding on that one.)

Apparently, the reason some areas are considered “nice energy” places is because of so-called “vortexes.” I’ve heard this type of thing mentioned relative to Sedona, Arizona.

Vortexes are supposedly swirling, hard to describe, centers of energy in a place that contribute to spiritual growth, healing, self-awareness and psychological wellness, meditation, etc. etc. etc. Some people are believers. Some people are not. I find no solid science for it in my exhaustive, intensive 30 minute research.

What I am led to believe, based on my research, is that Sanpete County, Utah should be put on the world list of “nice energy” places. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t feel the whirling, swirling vortex of Sanpete. Don’t you feel it too?

The vortex of Mt. Shasta has a Buddist temple. The vortex of little ol’ Sanpete will have two temples when Ephraim’s new LDS temple is soon completed.

Sanpete has natural beauty like other “nice energy” areas. Many residents and visitors comment on the calm, healing attributes of the area.

Heck, the fact that the whole county has only two traffic lights and has 80% of the land mass of Delaware says something about serenity. (Delaware has over 900 traffic lights)

The other category that comes to mind, besides geography, when thinking of “nice energy” is people. I’ll put Sanpete’s people on as high of a level as any other area anywhere. So take that! – Reykjavik, Iceland and Glastonbury, England (the other two areas I hadn’t yet mentioned, on the list).

And if, by chance, my anonymous texter from Sunday is reading this piece, my answer is this: “Yes! Yes, indeed, I am surrounded by nice energy. Thank you very much!”

— Merrill