Take My Breath Away
As I hear many people are reflecting, it’s almost a year since we started to pay attention to the new virus that was starting to spread amongst us. Also, it was exactly a year ago today that I had a knock on my door in the afternoon with my landlord notifying us that she and her partner decided to move into the condo unit we were renting. At that point, I had no clue how things were going to unfold in the following month or so.
By now, I think most of us have had someone we know who caught the virus and sadly who may have lost the battle. I keep thinking all year, “who would have thought….!?” When we ended up moving to our mountain house full time, I didn’t know how long we’d stay here full time. After all most of the activities both professionally and personally were in the city — before COVID, of course. As I said many times, it was absolutely a blessing for us to have had to end
Fast forward, as I write this, two thirds of the country is hit by record breaking snow storms, even in Texas. My friend in Iowa sent me a text message that it was negative 10 degrees and said “I bet you can’t take that! 😳. He’s probably right. Temperatures in single digit or even in the teens would be way too cold for me. When it dips down to low 30s and 20s, which happens at this altitude, it is officially time to stay in.
It was one of those cold days last weekend. Although it was beautifully sunny, the temperature remained in the 30s all day. In fact, it was just too beautiful out to stay in. So my husband and I ventured up to Mt. Pinos, the highest point of this area. It’s been more than 2 weeks since we had the last snow fall, but the cold temperature kept good amount of snow still on the ground and attracted a lot of city folks playing along the road sledding and making snowmen. We just took our hiking poles and hit the trails. And OMG! Even though we’ve been there many times including during the winter, I had never seen this forest like this where trees — mostly pine trees — were still covered in snow. The pine needles were all white! The cold wind was blowing the frozen snowflakes off the trees, and it looked like snowing even though the sun was shining. It was absolutely breathtaking. Hiking up the trails with packed powder snow to the almost 8,900-feet high summit was definitely a good workout, but most of all it was invigorating and inspiring reminding me to be ever more grateful for my health, able body and however the circumstances brought me to that moment.
#YouCanSitWithMe