I’ve waited all through these past months hoping and longing for better weather.
Then today I looked around and, low and behold - it had finally arrived.
Our former dried up desert landscape is now fresh and green again after the recent rains.
The buds on the cottonwood trees all along by the river are bursting out into beautiful fresh green leaves. Pink and purple cherry and apple blossoms light up our town with new ever so welcome vibrant spring colors.
Well, it’s a great day in the morning. We are alive again!
More than seventy years have come and gone in what seems like just the blink of an eye.
All has changed around me. Still life continues with it’s same steady stream of patterns.
One day, not long ago, I looked up at the evening sky and marveled at the fiery bands of crimson, orange and pink clouds.
I wondered if these were just now performing their dramatic sunset crescendo for me, or has it been happening all along and I’m just at this moment noticing it?
I remember way back, as a kid, seeing a very similar spectacle and being deeply moved by its beauty.
I could feel life all around me in a green grassy field as I watched the wonders of nature play out in the western twilight sky above.
Has this been going on all through my life and only just now coming back into my awareness?
The distant columns of hills also perform a mystical evening show as the sun sinks low. They constantly change through a spectrum of shades and colors before fading into the coal blackness of night.
Now that I’m aware of these phenomenal events again, in my mind I fantasize that they should be accompanied with a loud and dramatic symphony orchestra.
That should get people’s attention. It would wake them up to the exquisite beauty of our natural world.
I have many good excuses and reasons why I was oblivious to the brilliant sunrise, the gentle floating clouds, ever shifting winds and peaceful golden sunsets.
There was school, work, family, community and my ongoing interactions and struggles with them all. There were priorities such as money, romance, transport and survival.
I suppose it’s as though I got so involved and preoccupied in the who, what and wherefore of a couple of tiny dots in the scene. I lost sight of the overall picture.
But now, in the twilight of my days, it’s all coming back to me once more.
As I no longer fight traffic, pursue a hectic schedule, and hustle for a few dollars, my life has simplified. I no longer work to live nor live to work.
There is life after work. There is more than the office, factory, farm, military, etc.
You are not what you do. you are who you are.
It’s springtime in Nevada once more.
The golden sun rises in the morning. Little birds sing in the trees as they always have. The wind still blows and the rains fall. There is a rhythm, a rhyme and a music to life. There is great beauty in the world all around us.
Seventy years plus have come and gone in the blink of an eye. I was young. Now I’m old. I was innocent.
Now I’m experienced and a bit wiser. Still, I’m just a child of the universe learning its ways.
It seems to me that man has only made a few scratches on the outer physical surface of this planet since he has been here these many thousands of years.
At times I think we may not be as advanced, enlightened and knowledgeable as we claim.
Could it be that we are still in our early steps of seeing, discovering and understanding this wonderous world around us?
Dan O’Connor can be reached at danhughoconnor@gmail.com