There is Solace on this mountain

It is January 22, 2006. When we did our hike this morning it was 8 degrees. But we have learned how to dress here, how to live here. People are dumbfounded when we discuss where we live. We have no street lights, and there is only one crossroad through the center of our community. At least there are stop signs there! Off the main highway there there are county roads, all but two are dirt roads that go deeper into the mountains. We have a well, there is no such thing as city water, there is no "city", or any type of municipal government. We are "in the county". When it is dark outside......it is dark outside, the only lights visible around us are the other homes in the ponderosa pines. We just now got natural gas in, we have been on propane since 99. A guy asked me once, "do you have inside toilets?", how funny. We live in a modest home that is warm, remodeled to date and even have a two car garage! I love our home.

For Karen and I, it completely changed our relationship. It's pretty darn hard to find stress up here unless you are bringing it in like a virus. We have been together for 28 years, there have been tough times, times of seemingly unenduring anxiety, But I have to say, those times have been brief. Our life is on a wonderful ebb and flow, with both of us experiencing our own realities, and owning them. The City wasn't like that. I will never know how I lived while only twenty feet from my neighbor. How I slept with the neverending sounds of vehicles passing by, and the sounds of neighbors arguing. A neighbor's house gets broken into, a car is stolen. Who needs it?

We call our home "Solace", we have a plaque affirming that over our garage door. It is truly solace, a safe harbor, it is ours, and we choose to fight the cold and snow at 9000 ft. We choose to hike at 8 degrees. Everything here, we choose, everything there was chosen for us. Our morning hike through the Pike National Forest is an incredible experience. We love to hike with new people and show them the beaver, badger, bear, Wapiti, the mulies and the plethera other animals. "TAVA" (Pikes Peak) is in fact sacred ground to the Northern Ute. My heart swells every morning with pride of it's beauty. Our hike offers several views of the peak, I never fail to look up there. We are wide eyed in the forest, looking at the variety of plants and animals. Our understandings are discussed, we do research.