Waking up in Colorado

Posted by on March 19, 2009 in Nature / Colorado.

To add to the topic of Dana’s Blog Entry on recycling your plastic bottles or ditching them all together, I am posting another little environmental blurb to get us thinking along these lines.

Every spring, the undeniable feeling of revived energy is in us. Looking at the front range - I observe the color change from snowy white, to dusty brown, and then quickly to vibrant green.

The warm days and early sunrise encourage us out into the world again. I think this time of year is an excellent time to remember to cherish our wild earth.

So, with no real clear segway – I’ll get to my point…

This morning I awoke early, I leashed up Bobby and we hiked before the sun was up, before the birds chirped, and before the sound of traffic. We were at the top of the mesa, near the overlook along HWY 36. I hopped up on the split rail fence and just sat quietly while Bobby lay in the tall dewy grass below. Colorado was just waking up, and I was watching it happen. The glorious sunrise, displaying more incredible color, depth, and resolution than any flat screen t.v. is capable of conveying, the chirping, cawing, and calling of wild birds - more precise than any ipod can deliver, and then the traffic began.

It was at that moment, I thought of my Dad, who lives in Suburban Chicago, I thought of him out there, in the race, heading to off to work. I missed him, wished he was sitting next to me and I let my eyes rest and my vision blur. I could still see the square shapes going in an organized pattern moving up and down the steep hill. I heard the steady noise of engines working to get the cars, trucks and buses up over the rise and to the valleys on the other side. Slowly the noise became indistinct. And then I heard the music filling my head. It was the music of Phillip Glass. Then the deep monotone voice chanting, “KOYAANISQATSI” began.

When I was just a child my Dad sat my brothers and I down to watch a “movie”, little did he know what a grand impression is would leave on us. Or did he?

The title is “Koyaanisqatsi” a Hopi word that translates to Life Out of Balance.

This movie is a sort of “An Inconvenient Truth” of the early 1980’s and worth checking out now, as much as it was then.

If interested, google the title, or go to youtube.com and watch the film in its entirety.

So today, I attempt to get you to go out of your way to pick up and recycle a plastic bottle on the side of the road, or pick up a missed pile of dog poop on the trail…

Jena
Boulder, CO

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