Day 15

A picture of something you want to do before you die.

Halfway through! You know, I think I'll just post a few of these every day for now on. The summer's almost here!

Anyway, for a list of things I want to do before I die, see the bucket list on the right side of the screen. :)

For a picture, see below: I'd love to see the Northern Lights. It just doesn't seem real in photographs or films. I want to know for myself that the spectacular ghostly lights are real- and I can imagine that the experience is nothing you could recreate in any way besides being there.

(Picture courtesy
http://www.guildtravel.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/auroraborealis1.jpg)

Same River Twice

Explore a new trail, or revisit an old one?

Quite a dilemma on any given weekend that is remotely sunny enough to head outside. However, one of the coolest (haha, pun intended) things about winter is that it changes familiar trails so you feel like you're exploring something new on a familiar backdrop. Winter paradox: frozen implies stuck, unchanging, but really the features of winter change often and dramatically. Think of an icicle, or eight inches of snow that fell overnight.

Big difference, right?
And it could be g o n e the next day.

Culvert Canyon is one of my favorite places to explore. We went twice this past week, and it changed so much just in a matter of days. We retraced familiar routes for a time and then stepped off into the unknown: we explored up a side canyon and found a cool trail that loops high above the wash all the way back to the start.
Another thing that adds variety: different people. If you've ever been a member of a group, you know that each group has a different dynamic, different personality mix, different goals and experience levels and abilities. Hiking with kids, you go slower and play more. Hiking with older adults, you hear all kinds of stories. Hiking with a few friends, you can cover a lot of ground and goof off. Hiking by yourself, you find solitude.

And even if you go on the same hike by yourself twice, it's different because you have changed since you last laced up your boots. That's another paradox: same person, different person. This idea's been around for a while:

"No man steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man."

(Heraclitus, Greek philosopher 500 B.C.)

Now, back to wondering. I won't be wandering far for a while. I'm home. :)

Why is the cold so intimidating?

It's no fun to be stuck inside all day, but it takes such effort to bundle up and brace against the frost.

However, yesterday I went running. It was exhilarating! I've realized that that's one of the times when I feel most alive: charging up a hill, watching my breath fall beside me, feeling the ground below and the muscles pushing me higher and farther. Heating up, breathing in, breathing out, going on.

In the cold, you have to keep running if you want to stay warm. You can't stop. You can't slip. You've just gotta go----->

I've decided that I like winter after all. The still, the stark, the frozen. The sharp contrasts of red rock, white snow, clear sky. The soft landing and biting cold. Icicles reaching down imperceptibly, stiff branches clawing the sky. The flush of red nose and cheeks nearly buried in insulating layers, laughter ringing through the clear, frozen air.

Once they've shed their lush, bright summer garments and all is quiet, bare landscapes reveal their true colors. Pastel rocks glowing in the weak winter sunlight. Colors intensified by a backdrop of white and grey. A single snowflake on an old leaf.

People, too, show their true colors when all is cold and quiet.

Winter beauty is subtle, but real.