Sometimes, things don’t go as planned. My friend, Claire, and I had scheduled a two-week backpacking trip in July on the Colorado Trail. We spent months training with loaded packs, increasing the weight with every hike, slowly accumulating the gear we would need. We checked and re-checked our checklists, and were eager to hit the trail to recharge in nature.
Then a few weeks before our start date, a wildfire broke out, and then another. And yet another, burning up (and closing down) the very trail we were supposed to follow. Between the triple-digit heat, wildfire closures, smoky air, and unpredictable monsoon flooding here in Colorado, my friend and I reluctantly canceled.
Instead of coming up with a Plan B backpacking trip, I took a deep breath and decided on a staycation at home. I’d been on the road a lot for my book, which was wonderful, but I was tired. My body craved sleeping in, day hikes with friends, an empty calendar, reading for pleasure again.
Because I stayed home and resisted the urge to fill my calendar, I was able to slow down enough to witness some magical moments in nature:
Sunrise light across the wings of a red rufous hummingbird, making it glow in flight.
A trio of young moose ambling through the yard.
Daily visits from a turkey hen and her chicks just outside my office window.
The first bloom of dahlias that I started from tubers this spring.
A magpie hanging upside down to eat boulder raspberries off springy branches.
Two mule deer, a pair of healthy does, crossing the river at dusk.
A little fox making its nightly hunting rounds about the cabin.
And I caught the moment when four baby birds, western flycatchers, hatched from speckled eggs in their nest near my front door. Each day I watch the parents hunt for bugs mid-air. And from my desk, I can hear the fluttering of wings as they feed the hungry chicks.
I would have missed it all if I wasn’t home.
A staycation was exactly what I needed to recharge. There is new life all around, and I’m so glad I slowed down enough to see it.