Rambling Prose...

Rambling Prose...
.Let's take a walk together.....

Thursday, April 22, 2010

RUMINATING ON EARTH DAY 2010







Sitting in front of my computer screen, and looking back over my left shoulder and out my office window, what is that I'm seeing?  Well what do you know!  Flacks of snow coming down, covering the trees and bushes and our little strip of lawn in the backyard.
What a beautiful sight on this special day...Earth Day.  I guess Mother Nature is just checking in to let us know, that although it's Spring, she wanted to see some snow today.


That is one of the greatest joys of living in Northern Arizona...the weather keeps you wondering what it's up to...and if you don't like it, just wait 20 minutes... and it will change!  
I suspect that this snow shower won't be with us for long...I'm seeing a patch of blue sky off to the South.


I recall when we lived back in San Diego that the Earth Day celebration was quite an affair.  Thousands of people spilling out into Balboa Park enjoying the great weather and the many sights...people, dogs, booths, etc.  And, I always seemed to be out among them, looking, taking photographs, talking with strangers, and generally having a great time.


Our Earth Day celebration will be on Saturday (April 24th) at the Courthouse Plaza in downtown Prescott.  A much smaller venue, with modest crowds, but no less enthusiastic about what the day really means.  Now living in a large California city, you can still appreciate all that Earth Day should mean...but it's a little more challenging.  With all of the property development ( structures, concrete buildings, asphalt parking lots,etc.)...you don't get to see a lot of Earth!  You have to go down to the harbor to see water; you must travel East to see mountains of any size; and, you have to get out into a wilderness area before you can truly experience peace and silence.  Now I've lived in San Diego for years...it's a good place to live...but you haven't really fully appreciated Mother Earth (my opinion), until you get away from large cities...away from the poor air quality, away from the "flat lands", away from the crowds of people and cars, and get to a point where you can have an unobstructed view of the land.  


Walking out my front door, and down to a nearby street, I can look Northeast and see a beautiful range of mountains about 5-6 miles off in the distance.  Looking out my office window, I can see a mountain peak (about 5800 ft. in altitude) about 2 miles away.  I can get in my car and drive about 7 miles to Watson Lake in Prescott, or drive directly South into a National Forest covered with all types of pines.  There are mornings and evenings when I can sit in my backyard and enjoy almost complete silence.  There are clear nights when I can see millions of stars just above my home.   


I don't wish to "overwork" this line of thought, but to only make the point that Earth Day has a particular significance to me, because, for perhaps the first time in my life, I live close to the Earth.  It is wonderful and it brings me PEACE!