Aspen Moment

During my first fall in Santa Fe during college, a few friends and I drove up the road to the Santa Fe Ski Basin to check out the changing aspens. We had hit the peak of the leaf change, parked the car and walked into a grove of yellow aspen trees. Such a place is unbelievable - surrounded by leaves on the trees and spread all over the forest floor, that seem illuminated from within by a yellow light and that make a gentle, rustling noise in the wind as the leaves touch each other. Holding up all the yellowness are bright, white tree trunks, slashed with lines of black. Breathtaking.

Colorado is also home to aspen groves, which grow in a kind of family unit with many trees sharing a single root system. The last two years, I have been able to drive and see aspens at their peak again. A few weekends ago, on Michael and my trip up to Tabernash, we took a hike with friends and ended up in a few aspen groves. Walking off the trail, I walked into the middle of a grove and let the yellow light, the leaf rustle fall all around me. I breathed deeply.

Michael looked at me and asked, "Are you having a moment?"

"Yes," I answered. Indeed I was.

There was a time some year and a half ago where I felt like trees - among other things - were God's message of strength to me, messages to keep going and to continue hoping. What a joy to have messages of beauty now in these trees I love.