I'm sitting on a large flat rock in the middle of St. Vrain creek. Roaring water flows on each side of me as I admire the beautiful Indian Peaks Wilderness. I biked up here today on a little jeep trail, hoping a break from the city would ease my agitated mind. I can already tell a great improvement has occurred! My body feels good, tired from the rough ride but calm. A peace is settling over me that I haven't felt in weeks. Ahhhh... There is nothing around but me and nature. No people, no cars, no pollution, no worries. Here deep in the woods, everything is in order. The water flows over the rocks in small even surges. The tree branches shake gently in the breeze produced by the rushing water. An occasional drop of water escapes the river to land on my skin. I sit in direct sunlight yet the rock beneath me is cool. There is a balance here, one not found in the rush of my everyday life and concerns. All is as it should be.

Perhaps I am wrong, and the rush of my everyday life and concerns exudes this balance as well, only on a level beyond my understanding and perception. I think this is true, and sometime I even sense it, that elusive feeling that my life which seems chaotic and painful is keeping step perfectly with some grand plan, a grand plan which is balanced and loving beyond even what I feel here in this river. When I feel this, I have peace, the peace of God I suppose, that come from the overview. Why can't we see it all the time? I suppose if we could, we would give up our silly suffering and return to our more natural forms, leaving this physical life of lesson behind for the serenity of spirit.

The tree branch next to me has a small green sprig growing from its side, new growth in what would otherwise seem a mature branch. Why did this new growth begin? Why more growth on a seemingly mature tree? And why did it sprout from the side of this branch rather than at the end where other new growth is apparent? In some strange way, I am reminded of myself. I thought I had already matured in areas which are now just starting new growth. Perhaps the very realization that I was not complete opened the door for this growth. Did the tree suddenly consider that it may not be mature on this branch, hence starting the process which formed new growth? I doubt it. I think nature does not suffer form the human fallacy of imagined maturity. Nature knows life is a continuous process of birth and death of growth and decay. This knowledge allows the season to flow without the conflict interjected by humans in their similar seasonal changes.

My life now is changing, despite my resistance. I can only hope that this new period will bring great happiness as well, if I can only accept it as nature accepts the change from spring to summer and summer to fall. Each season has its own beauty and lessons to share. Without them all, there would not be balance. Each could not exist without the previous seasons contribution to the whole. So it is with my life I assume. That this cycle is a necessary phase in my quest to move onward in my growth.