Taking Time

I haven't really made a goal of posting to my blog(s) at any certain rate and so I don't feel guilty about the Sept. 23 reminder I got when I logged onto this one.  Nor am I wracked with guilt when I consider that this was the last of the three I own that I gave any attention to.  I've been busy with good things.  Actually I've been spending lots of time with someone else's blog lately.  Actually it's the only thing I've even blogged about for the past couple of months.  I'm really taken with the subject of focus.  At 53 I'm aware that my life is not going to last long enough for me to explore every topic or item that captures my mind.  And my mind is easily captured.  When I took the Gallup "Strength Finder" survey, (you can get a code to take it by buying a copy of the book: "Now Discover Your Strengths" by Markus Buckingham of Gallup.  The survey returns a list and description of your top five talents.  Three of my top five "talents" involve vacuuming up information and churning it around in my mind.  I can see how they can be called talents, but May West wasn't right about everything when she said "Too much of a good thing can be wonderful!"  I'm at a point in my life where I really have to learn to focus.  And I've kind of fallen in love with the topic lately.
One of the best things I've found to help me stay on track is to be jealous of my hour in the wilderness each day.  Since I've made my walk a priority I've not only lost nearly 10 pounds in less than a month, I've learned to quiet my mind.  When I'm able to stop the constant internal chatter I've found that the more important things in my life bob to the top of the mind pool and I'm able to get clear on priorities. 
Ironically it's made me busier than I've ever been.  By committing myself to meaningful accomplishment in just a few, most important things I find I am unable to "drift" through life by touching a million other things lightly; going from one to the other without actually accomplishing anything tangible with any of them.  Such a course gives the illusion of being busy but doesn't allow me to get deep enough into any of them to do anything meaningful with them.

So taking an hour out of a busy day is another irony.  My best ideas come during my walk.  My mind is recharged and I get into my car at the end with a quiet resolve to make the most of the rest of the day.  Also I see truly stupendous displays of nature. 
This one is of what I like to call "micro vistas".  Beus Canyon is just a little defile in the face of Mt. Ogden with a great little perennial stream running down it.  It's an absolute oasis in the summer; cool, shady and filled with little pockets of wonder like this.  There are no grand panoramas to be seen, but if you're willing to look small, you'll see beauty unsurpassed in small scale, anywhere on planet earth.
The bottom picture is of a certain Maple tree near the bottom of the trail.  I've never seen a brighter one and while this one seems to be a bit brighter than its neighbors every year, this year it really outdid itself.  Take a walk in the early evening and be amazed.  This kind of fire can't last many more days.