Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves. ~John Muir
God taught me another lesson on perspective yesterday. Growing up in Texas I took it for granted that most people had nice manicured lawns, big Oak trees, flowers, and plenty of water to nourish them. Since I moved to Las Vegas, the first few years I lived here I talked about how I detested living in the desert, everywhere you go nothing but dirt and dust. Hell, even the cactus here were ugly. But then I wasn’t looking in the right places. My eyes only saw what I chose for them to see. Well yesterday, I was given an opportunity to see another side of our beautiful state when I headed out to Red Rock canyon with my good friends Billie, Tom, and Sanjay for a nice little hike.
Billie and Tom are a bit more experienced to say the least, but dragging along a couple of novices like me and Sanjay, we all decided to hit the easy to moderate trails, which provided not only ample scenery, but a bit of a physical challenge for us beginners.
We started out on the Willow Creek loop, which we finished in no time. We then headed across the road and took what we thought was a trail, which eventually lead us onto a trail with a bit more of a challenge to it. This trail lead eventually lead up to a fork to a waterfall, which is where we took our group photo. There wasn’t much water coming down the waterfall at this time of year, but it still provided for some nice scenery, not to mention some beautiful views along the trail.
After our hike, we headed back into “civilization,” and ate a nice lunch at the Grand Cafe at Red Rock Casino. After a nice meal, and a bit of recap about the days events I then headed off to work. Before I realized it, I had a tremendous amount of energy, and I had one of my most productive days at work ever. I kid you not when I say I restocked the entire store, and enjoyed it.
Growing up, I would play anywhere from 18-27 holes of golf a day. After those rounds I of course would be tired, but after resting for a couple of hours, the oxygen I took in all day long would kick in and then I would go out with my friends and party all night long. This was the kind of energy yesterday gave me. You cannot get this kind of experience walking on a treadmill listening to audio books on your IPOD. There is something about nature that revitalizes you. Not to mention the added exercise tends not to be even exercise, you forget that what you are doing is even beneficial to your health, you just get wrapped up in everything around you.
As I said in the beginning of this post, God taught me another lesson about perspective. Take a closer look and you can find beauty in just about everything. Another lesson I took from this is when you focus on the beauty that life has to offer, challenges take a back seat, and they aren’t even challenges anymore. They end up just being another path to a really cool little waterfall somewhere in your life.
I will post the rest of my Red Rock pictures in a separate post real soon.
