If we stop to take a moment, wherever we are and whatever we are doing, there is always something else to experience or see that we might miss if we had not turned our attention to it.  Yesterday as I was packing up the car, two geese sailed in and landed in the catch basin that we euphemistically refer to as a pond.  This is a rare occurrence as there are many place that geese would find more interesting, but perhaps in the thunderstorm, they were just looking for shelter.

Shortly after turning on to the Interstate, driving parallel to the river, I noticed a bald eagle sailing low to the water.  Another glimpse at the river in Idaho rewarded me with an opsprey diving and then shooting back into the air, fish grasped in its talons.  The calves  and lambs are younger in this open part of the country than the more sheltered pastures closer to home.  Observing the natural world as I drove, connected me to it even though I was moving south at the speed limit.

The entire eastern Rocky Mountain region was swathed in thunderstorm formations with a variety of shapes and colors.  Surrounded on all sides by towering mountains and massive thunder heads, I continued south from forest to prairie to high desert; the change of habitat and the lessening signs of regular rainfall marking my progress.

This morning I head back with my new friend, Murray.  He seems a very easy dog, with good manners and is likeable in the way that labs are.  I’m sure there will be some adjustments when we get back to the mountains, he has been a southern dog all of his life.  But for today we will keep an eye out for raptors and other interesting sights and I am sure Murray will collect plenty of new smells during our stops on the way.  Watching Murray, to whom life is only this moment; no future and no past, will be my constant reminder to stay in the moment and appreciate all that is around me.