This afternoon I needed time away from the city, again, so I drove out to the eastern plains for a bit of physical silence and solitude. I spent several hours out there, actually. My last stop was this old cottonwood. I look up to this Old Soul who has stood guard over this field and the horizon for many years now. If you’ve followed me for any length of time you have seen several images of this Elder, as I check on them often. What made me stop and take this image was some journaling I did an hour earlier. I am aware of the challenge it is to capture images without the sign of man involved. The Old Soul or Romantic in me has often wondered how I would experience this land with its silence, its solitude and the vastness of it 200-300 years ago. So today I listed a few things in my journal that would not have been here then. There would be no roads, no vehicles, no air pollution, no oil well pumps, no fences, no bar ditches where someone has dumped an old couch, no jets overhead and their contrails, no plowed fields, no irrigation systems, no power lines, no cell towers, no wind turbines, no fields of solar panels, no housing developments, no warehouses full of stuff, no dairy farms, no buried gas lines, no water towers, no farms, and the list could go on. And, one more thing that would be missing would be the sound pollution coming from man’s machinery. I guess what I really was aware of today was how invasive man has been in nature, wondering how many people seem unaware, and may even believe it has always been this way. The sun has set and darkness moves in. It is time for me to publish this, fill my bowl with popcorn and read for awhile. May you stay safe and warm and enjoy your weekend.
4 Comments
Earl
When Bonnie and I spent a day driving the Colorado eastern plains there last September, we had thoughts and conversations about those very same things. What was it like to experience this when this was new and raw land? I think the plains lend themselves to that subject matter just by their very nature. Your mention of popcorn has me wanting some now, but I don’t think we have any. Dang! Take care!
Monte Stevens
So great minds do think alike!!! I’ve been on these bags of Skinny Popcorn and enjoy a small bowl just about every evening. I blame it on my brother-in-law from this past Thanksgiving or give him the credit.
Joan Heiman
This morning, waking around 5:30 a.m , as I closed my window against the morning chill, I was aware (again) of the sound of traffic. I wondered what time it started up or if it ever stops. I wondered if it’s EVER silent in this town. If it’s EVER still. Tonight, when I wake around three a.m., I’ll listen for the quiet. Peace be with you.
Monte Stevens
I spent about three days in a hostel in San Francisco a few years ago right in the heart of the city. I was totally amazed as the noise level that was present 24 hours a day. Fort Collins can have those moments of quiet such as 3 am or even at 6 am. I hope you are enjoying the summer like weather!