DECEMBER 21

Narrow is barely a word to describe it... This canyon "trail" always seems to throw me for a loop. I've come close to falling in the class 4 & 5 rapids on an early spring day where the water roars like the trains that barrel down the adjacent tracks. I've also clawed my way up the Gore Canyon walls on a hot summer day with no water, falling backwards into cacti and hopelessness with each step I'd attempt. Something like a Bermuda triangle of the west for me, it seems. Crouching, sliding, slipping and falling all to leave with a photo to capture the beauty in a difficult experience, this time wasn't all that different... except that I was able to identify where I've gone wrong in years past. And connect with those memories.

Quite simply, this old beaten path is shriveling. Eroding. Wasting away to the obvious forces of water, wind, and gravity; all the while the riverbank grows and the water ebbs and flows. Cant help but notice the similarities in the withering of the natural world, myself included. Semi-dark, realistic thoughts that all 7 Billionnsomething souls face the inevitable decay of our own lives and our own life's paths... I quickly smirk and become washed over with joyous emotion in knowing that "It's Just a Ride." These are tough thoughts and Im actually not one to wake up and think "damn i feel old as f today".. No, in fact, I've been known to express my interpretation of age as, "you're only as old as your last thought." Funny being 5 one second, and 75 the next... or vice versa. you know the thoughts.

Truth is, no matter how you think you've risen and/or fallen in the direction you've carved over the years, like this riverbank, we can always stop and appreciate the great cycle of erosion. The turbulent, white-water human experience of People, Money, Politics, Relationships, Sports, Hobbies, Interests, Desires, Failures, Fears, Successes, Ambiguity, Friends and Family -or the lack thereof- all have a place in this world. All Walks of Life. All Nations. All Colors. All Feelings & Experiences. Everyone and Everything has a path up, down left, right, through, back, sideways, etc. Life takes its toll but it leaves knowledge and experience in its wake.
Like my journeys into this canyon, we can float or drown if we fall. We can climb or die trying if we choose to rise. But it is most important to admire the flow in and out of the canyon. Appreciate the hardships, even if you're running on empty. Feel 5 and 75 at the same time and crack up about it. Take it all in and appreciate the time that you had... to be. Just... "to BE"....

for it is -not- a question.

-KM