A new house… new work, and the yellowing of the leaves hint at a changing season.

The other day I found myself looking up at a tree and just taking a minute to watch the light dance amongst the leaves. Seems strange, but it struck me as a moment I was sure to remember. Ever have those? When, as something is happening, for whatever reason, you are sure that moment will stay with you forever? Whether negative or positive, when I reflect on those moments in my past, I find myself happy to have had them. They seem to represent the moments in my life when I was most present; aware of my life and me living it.

Yet, when working in a regular routine to “progress,” or move towards our “greater” goals, periods of time seem to slip by without notice, and quite quickly. If I look back at the summer for example, it seems like a blur. From thesis to work and back again, the days on the calendar this summer ticked away. I don’t regret spending most of my time working but I would go so far as to say, moments of consistent routine demand gusts of chaos from time to time. Getting lost for a week in the Jemez forest, river rafting under a moon filled night, or playing disk golf in the desert as the sun splinters on the dust particles at sunset are a few moments I’m sure to remember.

Perhaps that is one of the great dangers in our modern times… loosing our ability to differentiate day in and day out, with it our ability to seize new experiences, even if just for a moment to make a new memory and feel alive. With that, it seems appropriate timing to get lost in the woods somewhere, climb a mountain, see something new. Life is short… life is too short.