Cold Springs Ranch: Some of Lifes Pictures, Tuesday January 1, 2008

Back in the fall, as the Autumn air started to turn crisp and the leaves golden, I got my usual call to be on the move. I wonder sometimes if it's not some deep seated instinctual drive, triggered by the coming fall. I usually satisfy this drive by taking a week off and roaming the hinterlands of the American west.

This year, because of work, and pressing needs here at the Ranch, I couldn't really get away. As the time approached when I usually go, I got a little bummed as I heard the call of the west, but couldn't answer it. So I turned to pictures I took of last year's adventure. After looking at those pictures, I just started browsing all my pictures of the last few years.

As I used the photographs to take me back to all those great experiences I realized how lucky we are. I realized how lucky we are here in the early 21 Century to have the ability to take photographs so easily and cheaply. I realize that we take this great gift for granted.

Can you imagine what it must have been like for our ancestors as the people and events of their lives passed behind them. How, with the growing years, memories of those people and events grew ever fainter. Dimmed by time, till they become only a faint memory. Could you image not really being able to clearly remember what your mother or father looked like. What a lost child looked like. What the places you've seen and the people you've met looked like.

As I browsed my pictures, I realized how lucky I am. How lucky I am to have been able to have these adventures and how lucky I am to be able to relive them over and over. If only I take the time.

What a luxury.

Anyway, here are a few pictures in no real particular order. Some are just from a walk in the morning at the Ranch, some are from around the house, some are from great adventures hundreds of miles away. Some are just snapshots of a scene while hiking that take me back to a particular day. Some are images from a momentous life changing experiences, that forever changed the way I see the world.