Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado // Permanence is a tricky word when it comes to sand dunes. On one hand, the individual grains are endlessly buffeted by the unfettered desert winds, never resting for longer than it takes the wind to change directions. Yet, at the same time, at least in the Great Sand Dunes National Park, the whole system is remarkably stable. You can look at photos taken there 100 years ago and it's easy to pick out the same dunes in the same places, unperturbed despite a century of storms. I suppose the same thing can be said about most things on this planet. Like the archetypal astronauts watching a nuclear holocaust from space, no matter the chaos and dynamism of life on the ground, the view from far away will be serene.
Mt. Zirkel Wilderness, Colorado // With this forced down time since breaking my nose, I've had lots of time to read about and ponder the relationship between the highs and lows of life: the great moments of self-actualized fullness, and the in-between stretches of boredom, sadness, frustration, injury; the crests and the troughs; the State of Gold and the State of Blue. And, like any other imagined dichotomy, the lesson is that each State completely depends on the other for its existence. Seeking one and not the other is, as Alan Watts put it, like trying to have the mountains without the valleys. The heart of mindfulness is turning discrimination into acceptance, learning to appreciate the present moment for exactly what it is. So, if Gold is radiant energized activity, Blue is healing: the time that you need to work through whatever is going on, renew, or just recharge. (I mean, this was the basic lesson of Inside Out, even!) The trick, at least for me, has been to remember this: The glass isn't half-full or half-empty, it's totally full!
Mica Basin, Colorado //
