corner canyon

enjoying a fire: my carbon footprint

Tonight I am enjoying our chimenea, out under the wide Texas sky.  Away from the city: syphilization.  Far from pollution by light, sound, smog and thought I sit here looking up at few clouds and many stars warmed by southern red oak releasing years of stored energy on a crisp fall night under Casseopeia, a very large "w" splayed out to my north.  As the fire mellows, the smaller pieces turning amber and chalky white I wonder. Am I increasing my carbon footprint in a way that impacts our world negatively?

Is one of my favorite ways to spend the evening, releasing sequestered carbon back into the atmosphere?  Do we need to examine the simplest of our human desires in the wake of our potential for global destruction? Or can I enjoy the moment guiltless and free?

first the slide, then the swings

Can you imagine being about three?

At the park looking at all the playground equipment: a slide, swings, a teeter-totter, and trees and grass. Everything so big and wide. Inviting you, beckoning to you. Eyes wide, smiling, little feet scooting across the ground, arms kind of out at your side, because shuffling along quickly is a new skill, you start out alone for the slide. Not so sure all of a sudden, you stop and turn around. There I am sitting on the bench watching you. Letting you go off on your own. Seeing me there you turn once more and off you go. Still moving quickly, on a bit farther, then again not so sure, the stop, the turn, there I am still on that bench. Eyes on you.

I watched you all the way to the slide, a few eager steps at a time. You slipped on the first rung, caught yourself and started climbing the ladder; the smile on your face was unforgettable. Near the top you looked down and then back to me. Stopped on the ladder, eyes unsure, body unwilling, you needed me and so I came over to where you were. A reassuring hand on your back was all you really needed to reach the top triumphant. Once you slid down that slide on your own you did it again and again as I watched from the bench. Running from the bottom back to the ladder and on up. Over and over again I watched you. You fell a time or two. Off the end of the slide and running to the ladder. I came over once to pick you up and bring you back to sit on my lap as the tears dried from your cheeks. We ate Marie Lu's and black grapes on the bench until you were ready to set out once more, this time toward the swings. Eyes wide and smiling.