One day
the wind was so bad, you couldn’t see the mountains outside my office because of the dust clouds… I ‘m
told if the wind comes from the UTAH direction during the winter, it can make
the snow covered mountains look pink when the dust mixes with the snow. And
then some more robust winds blew the dust away until the mountains came out again.
The
lunch conversation revolved around water. “It’s too early to start watering.
Our ditch isn’t even full.” “We’re going to be the first on our block
with green grass, but we’ll also be the first with a big water bill.” These are
foreign concepts to me. I politely finished my chicken curry as I could not
join the conversation. Then, tonight, when I went out to take a picture of my
last Coloradan sunset…. I found a full ditch!
And my little brain light bulb
went off. There are ditches around the
town. They’ve been empty all winter. I had taken a picture of one with a icy puddle the first
week I was here. When enough snow in the mountains melts, the ditches acquire
(sometimes fill up with) water. Homeowners can then utilize the water, for a
price, i.e. for watering grass, etc.
I did notice that last weekend when I
took my Bindu friend up on The Monument mountains, that when we looked down on Grand Junction,
there was a serpentine swath of water that hadn’t been there 2 months ago when
I was up that high. Someone else at work told me today that he had already started his
potatoes and had secretly rigged up a system so his washing machine grey water
could irrigate his garden for a while until the ditches filled. Water is super
precious here. And in Maine, we have so much water, we just let it roll down
the hill into the pond.
In
reading about water on the easy-to-access-but-not-well-referenced web, my day
circled back to Chinese—2012 is Chinese Water Dragon Year! A coincidence? I
think not.
“THE WATER DRAGON 1952 AND 2012
Water has a calming
effect on the Dragon's fearless temperament. Water allows the Dragon to
re-direct its enthusiasm, and makes him more perceptive of others. These
Dragons are better equipped to take a step back to re-evaluate a situation
because they understand the art of patience and do not desire the spotlight
like other Dragons. Therefore, they make smart decisions and are able to see
eye-to-eye with other people. However, their actions can go wrong if they do
not research or if they do not finish one project before starting another.” yes, from Wikipedia
I was not born in 1952 nor
2012. And I didn’t take this last
picture below. But I’d like to re-direct my enthusiasm and be more perceptive of
others. And I’m going to be more careful with water.
 |
No comments:
Post a Comment