This is the year of the sunflowers, a sudden resurrection of thousands of happy yellow flowers as far as the eye could see. Now, the red paintbrush silently watches as the rabbitbrush turns yellow. That means it is Autumn! Purple asters [Michaelmas daises] start to appear and rosy-fingered Dawn arrives later in the morning. Time to visit the forest.
Entering the woods is entering into the past several hundred years. The quiet and sunlight still exists. The different tribes of trees still live in harmony. The alligator juniper doesn't attack, is easily recognized, and gives us blue corn mash and gin, during its 300-700 years of life. Pinon pine is such a good little pine that uses very little water and keeps giving us nourishment. Its reward is being able to celebrate a 600th birthday. The 400-1,000-year fir tree gives us – Christmas. Hard and tough, the shrub oak isn't as generous and just sits there like an iceberg sending its massive roots 3-6 times bigger than all of the above ground portion of the shrub] 30 feet into the ground so it can re-sprout after a fire.
A group of young turkeys, startled when they saw me, began their baritone clucking, half running one way while the other half ran in the opposite direction. Lots of ground squirrels, my favorite being tassel-eared. It's easy to imagine a midsummers night, under a full moon, when a beautiful squirrel princess married a handsome elf prince. Their children have those wonderfully big pointed ears with tufts of fur at the end and luxuriant tails. The humming birds are gone, the doves still remain. The blue jays will continue their squawking throughout the year. Walking down a narrow trail, a magnificent elk crossed my path He stopped a few feet in front of me, his big brown eyes looking at me, and recognizing my unimportance in his life, quietly continued on his way. He carried his great weight so gracefully on those very slender legs.
Wonder what animals think when they're in the middle of a severe thunderstorm? The blinding lightning, ear splitting thunder, torrents of rain soaking their fur. Or if they're injured by a predator? No one brings them a cup of hot tea in bed or a warm blanket. This trip's lessons: 1. Maybe animals are blessed with the gift of living completely in the present moment, without memories of past pain or worry about future problems. 2. There still is something in us that bonds us with our brother and sister plants and animals so that our souls are refreshed.