OOOOOH that's breathtaking. Hum, "a lonely, yet joyful" longing. I know what you mean; I have that when I smell wet corn husks...maybe because by my house we had huge corn fields near by.
Gosh, I wish St. Louis had Mountains!

Heidi, I am no idealizer of children or childhood, well may be a little of the latter, but it is amazing to me the strength of feelings which at least I had in my childhood, fears and joys almost indescribable, though I would like to give a shot at attempting such descriptions in print one day. I rarely seem to have the same intensity of feeling and longing as an adult, though certainly sometimes it occurs.

I often DO feel the same intensity but have learned to respond in a different way. I can't tell you how many times I've had to fight urges to just jump into the forest park fountains because they made me feel happy. This goes for showing sadness too, I’ve leaned not to cry at sad movies unless I’m at home, because other grown-ups think it's weird (at least at The Chase Park Plaza). So, for me it’s not about feeling different initially, but feeling different because I'm not fully responding to those feelings like I did when I was a child.

OK, to be completely honest, I suppose I too still DO feel that way often, but try not to feel too intensely, either because one needs to be a grown up or in order to not to be disappointed. And perhaps doing that enough, makes you begin to feel less. One of the beautiful things about getting out into nature, and not just to take pictures, is that it break those things into one's life again. I think travel can do that to.