Every so often I have moments of quiet reflection; brief pauses in life where I actually stop and realize how truly lucky I am. The last few months have been difficult ones for me, and unfortunately I see many more challenges that probably lay ahead. The recipe for this last month has been unbearable cold, mixed with thick gray smog, so thick you can actually taste it. With weeks on end without ever seeing the sun or stars. All wrapped up in a day in, day out career that for some reason continues to be undervalued and ever slipping into a common cheap commodity. It feels at times that the cold, gray trenches of misery are going to last for the rest of ones life...then I just look up through the smog and see the blue sky smiling upon me.
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| Locked in a small winter thermal in the mountains above Provo, Utah |
The act of just looking up is forever a reminder of how truly lucky I am, and really how awesome my life is. So many people on this earth never get to experience the common miracles I take for granted almost every day. Although riddled with bouts of misery, the last month has produced breathtaking visions of beauty and memories that have forever etched their way into the history of my soul. I continue to reverence the absolute miracle of flight. So often while in the sky, carving the textures of air I find myself talking out loud to higher powers. Often these conversations revolve around the fact that so many people only dream of flying like a bird, no motors or metal, just wings; and here I am actually doing it....how truly lucky I am. Every time my feet leave the ground, I try and make it a point to remember that miracle.
I am so thankful for a great wife and kids who are always so supportive and understanding when the sky calls my name, which is most days. Thankful to great friends, near and some far, who share the same unquenchable passion for the sky. Thankful for the memories we, as the DEAF Crew, have forged together through the years. I am also thankful for the many hours of actually hiking and flying alone this month with only my thoughts and the views of nature to keep me company.
Yes, I am a truly lucky individual surrounded by wonderful miracles, knowing that if I just look up, there is solace to be found in the sky!
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| Carving the blue sky - Skywalk Arriba 2 |
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| Solo hike and fly above the smog layer. |
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| Enjoying the clean mountain air above the pollution. |
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| Paul and I on a ski-n-fly in Big Cottonwood as a storm bears down. - Skywalk Arriba 2 |
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| Solo flight off the lower meadows of Lone Peak...just me and the deer. |
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| Solo soaring session on the South Side...a rare day indeed - Skywalk Tequila 3 |
