Mesa Verde's Color

October came right on time, but the colors at Mesa Verde National Park were brilliant and long lasting well into the Fall, when it was time for me to leave.

I was headed home on this day and knew what that meant for me. It was a time of joy and sadness. There was very little sadness, however, because of the appreciation I felt to Life for the time I had spent there this year, which was more than 6 months.  It is never just nature that changes in this amount of time on the mesa.

 

My heart changes, I change, each year. I'm grateful to Life.

Celebrating My Re-Birth

Life has a way of catching
The unsuspecting
Passerby on neighborhood walks
We're all just moving through
Rich, homeless
Poor, pretty
Our days catch us all
Money piled high or
Mounting bales of bills
Measure yourself not by
Monuments of man

You are not your pain
Neither circumstances
Or what you leave behind
When you Pass Homeward
To the Place of Memory

You are a Spark of the Eternal
Powered by the One
Come here to Remember
The Powerful Truth

We get to create this place
As we wish, together.

Life Unfolds Like This

I crested the hill
Bottom outasight
Life unfolds like this
Brand new road
New curves
Potholes, rockslides
New mountains
Colors never seen
Streams untouched
Hope and fear
Flow together
Cascading to
Cottonwoods
Yellow, waiting
New life comes
After new choices

Vacation Notes

Okay, so it's been about a month, but I just wanted to share some of my vacation with you. This was a marvelous idea, this "vacation" thing. After having had a forced vacation in August for my first two full seasons at Mesa Verde, I realized that a vacation was in order this year because I didn't get to have the same break this past season. I loved it. I would love to have a year to roam and do not too much, other than be creative and do what I wanted. The photographs posted here represent some of those desires.

Rio Animas

Light Storm II

The Light Storm

This was the best lightning storm of the summer on the Mesa Verde, up to this point. It's monsoon season and we are getting lots of moisture these days. We got some decent rain out of this storm, but the thrill of this epic lightning storm was something I knew I wanted to capture. It was one of those storms that reminds you that you are not in control.