Morning Walk and the Great Divide
Still kind of drowsy with eyes closed, I can feel the pull of the sun as it rises up from behind our beautiful Sandia Mountain – drawing me up out of bed with it as it gains momentum getting higher in our big pink sky. Great things await! Simple things.
Beep beep beep. The coffee is done. (Auto timed coffee makers one of the best inventions ever!).
A hummingbird greets me on the patio hovering in that pink light, wanting some breakfast, like he too thinks it is the best meal of the day.
Awake now I set off for my morning walk in the cool air. It is soft and sweet. This is a time for the mind to be free, not yet cluttered with the debris of the day to come and able to absorb the simple beauty that presents itself daily here, if you take time to look or your mind has space to let it in.
The path behind my house runs alongside Bear Canyon arroyo leading down to Arroyo del Oso Golf course or uphill to the John B. Robert Dam. I always go up hill first to get the hard part over early. The jing jing of a bike bell lets me know a bike is coming up behind me. “Morning!” we say. Each person I pass has a greeting. Through the rest of the day rarely do I get such greetings. Maybe we are not yet overwhelmed by the responsibilities of the day and still willing to offer common grace.
Along the way the sunflowers growing in the arroyo smile into the sun. I see wild purple Morning Glory flowers, yellow and white blooms from wild gourds and I spy a tiny silhouette of a ballerina painted on a cinder block wall, a hidden treasure whose story makes me wonder. Simple things. Simple beauties. Simple gifts.
Eventually I arrive at my turn around spot. Standing on top of John B. Robert Dam (also seen in Terminator Salvation movie!) , the great cement divide between city to the west and open space ending in that big blue mountain to the east, with one foot in each world, I can see forever here – Mount Taylor, the Jemez, the day ahead.
I revel in the simple beauty of our Albuquerque.
By Kurstin Johnson