Perspective

I walked the Park Avenue trail at Arches National Park today.  From the Park Avenue trailhead, it is a pretty steady decline until you reach the bottom of a valley.  Towering rock formations, etched by Mother Nature, reached up on both sides around and behind me.  It felt like I was a tiny speck in the bottom of a deep bowl.

Last night, I stood in the dark on packed snow that reflected the tiniest amount of light with my camera set up on a tripod aimed at Balanced Rock at Arches National Park.  Before me were more stars than my mind could even contemplate.  I could pick out the constellation of Orion but nothing else because the stars were that dense.  My phone tried to direct me to Cassiopeia but I couldn't find the familiar "W" shape in the mass of stars.  As twilight disappeared and the darkness overcame, I discovered that if I stepped more than a few feet from my tripod, I struggled to find it once again.

Yesterday, I walked the Grand View Point Trail at Canyonlands National Park that followed the upper cliffs of the rim along the canyon.  At times, I sat down to just take in the expansive views and at other times I strolled along the path to find new views.

Yesterday morning, just after sunrise, I stood at Mesa Arch in Canyonlands National Park as my eyes widened as the arch slowly started glowing orange from the colors of the sun.

Tuesday, I stood between the towering rock formations along the Sand Dunes Arch trail.

North Window

Double Arch

Broken Arch

Also on Tuesday, I stood in the shadows of so many huge arches sculpted by Mother Nature over centuries.  

Tuesday morning, I watched the sun rise over the majestic, snow capped La Sal Mountains as the colors danced off the red rock formations behind me, a reminder that the light always follows darkness and sometimes it comes with a display of the most brilliant colors to remind us of nature's beauty.

On Sunday, all other sounds were drowned out as the chorus of a flock of snow geese echoed through Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge as they took off in unison.  

And these are just a few of the highlights from the last five days.  On this trip, neither the past nor the future matters to the moments.  It's the present moments that remind me of my place in this world, that leave me in complete awe, that show me the breathtaking beauty that surrounds me, that feed my soul, and that remind me of who I am.  

I'm not finding time to write or do any deep reflections like this blog so often highlights.  But I'm pouring into me and I'm exhausting myself with joy each day such that my nights are filled with restful sleep.