Birthday blog

Birthdays.  Mine falls on April Fools.  You can imagine the litany of jokes and tricks I had to endure in my younger years.  'To be honest it's quite fitting', I am told by those who get to know me before they know my birth date.  I can not help but agree.

Birthdays.  For me always begin contemplative, solemn, yet finish celebratory, with just a hint of relief.  I am more than halfway through my 31st as I write this, and have no doubt today will finish any different.  It began the same as many others before it - reflections on life, death (a bit more on the radar this year with the avalanche incident), loves lost and found, life direction (or lack thereof), happiness, sadness.  The full spectrum.

Birthdays.  A day of traditions.  In 2006 I began a new one.  I took my dog Ella to Berthoud Pass, just the two of us.  It had been a hell of a three month stint to begin that year.  I skinned up, she followed, and we had a sit once we reached the top of 1st Creek.  I spoke while she listened.  Who needs a shrink when you have a dog?  Feedback?  Nonsense.  Not every action needs a reaction.  We sorted some issues out in my life that day, and the tradition was born.  Last year I added another Newfoundland to the brood, her name is Nieves.  Twice the Newfie does indeed equal twice the happiness.

Today, the three of us sat on top of 1st Creek and watched a storm move in from the West.  I thought about the fat flakes that had graced the Wasatch, on to Steamboat Springs, and how this storm would dissipate into the plains as it moved East past the Front Range.  The Rocky Mountains continually amaze me - how quickly it can go from sunny skies and a cool breeze to swirling winds and sideways snow.  I sat and drank a PBR, my ski beer of choice, and admired the view.  Within seconds a blizzard of rumination arrived, surpassing that of the white and fluffy variety.  Meditation has begun to make sense finally, but only if one can handle the deep self-examination that comes with it. 

The ski down was one of the worst of the winter.  You know you are in trouble when north facing slopes at 10,500 feet are icy and punchy.  That is what happens when you are deep in the freeze thaw cycle, yet the thaw never arrives.  It really does not matter, we obtained what we sought out.
Birthdays.  A time to spend alone in profound thought.  A time to spend with loved ones in deep revelry, not thinking at all.  The utter satisfaction of surviving another lap around the sun.  The knowledge this could be the last.

Jesse Howe