“Our ability to perceive quality in nature begins, as art, with the pretty. It expands through successive stages of the beautiful to values as yet uncaptured by language.”
This past weekend was spent so beautifully, capturing memories in the mountains of Boulder, Colorado. My best friend and I thought that it was time to subtract ourselves from the over whelming city and engage in nature somewhere spectacular. We spent Saturday hiking up to the top of chautauqua mountain-which was one of the most beautiful experiences.The weather was perfect, it was sunny and cool on the way up to the top, and as the sun went down we snuggled in blankets and watched the sunset. Along the path up to the top, we stumbled upon crystals forming from the ground, which seemed to be rose quartz. We tried to dig up a large chunk of it but it seemed to be a bit too heavy. The dirt surrounding us was dry, and so was all of the vegetation. However, we encountered fresh white sage growing along the path, there were patches of sage everywhere. We picked some and burned it when we got to the top, it felt so healing to have been able to experience that. Birds were flying in and out of the trees, you would think that they would be the only things you hear, but there was much noise pollution from the cars down below. It shocked me as to how well we could hear the cars even so high up. It made me feel sad the we corrupt this beautiful space with our loud forms of transportation.
I did not get a chance to capture a picture of the sunset because it was too beautiful to even take my camera out.. but it was amazing to unplug and engage in all that surrounded us. We saw a chipmunk eating near by us, which in my Animal Speaks book by Ted Andrew means, “Balance work and play to enjoy treasures of the earth.” I believe that it was a perfect description of the moment for we were balancing our time between nature and the working world around. Balancing work and play was the purpose of our trip, for we we grew to understand and appreciate the earth more each day.
Not only was the weather beautiful, so was the changing of the season. The trees represented the season of fall slowly turning into winter. There were yellow, red and brown leaves surrounding the land and the branches of the trees were slowly being stripped of the leaves. I have never seen such vibrant colors like I did this weekend. Like Aldo Leopold said, this experience is uncaptured language.
