Walking in Beauty

I burned up twenty bucks worth of gas today and re-visited Wild Basin, I had not been there since 95 or so and that's entirely too long. This is in the southern part of Rocky Mountain National park, a pretty wild basin with lots of water and waterfalls. Small burbling brooks cross the trail between nice rock work, the trail is like some carefully manicured garden path the first couple of miles. This place is like Rivendell from the Tolkien world - waterfalls all over, I half expected to see elven folk walking about but it was mostly tourists instead. Some of them looked slightly elvish though.

As I was walking along the trail I was thinking back to a translation of a Navajo blessing I read once, I couldn't remember it all so I had to look it up when I came back:

In beauty may I walk
All day long may I walk
Through the returning seasons may I walk
Beautifully I will possess again
Beautifully birds
Beautifully joyful birds
On the trail marked with pollen may I walk
With grasshoppers about my feet may I walk
With dew about my feet may I walk
With beauty may I walk
With beauty before me may I walk
With beauty behind me may I walk
With beauty above me may I walk
With beauty all around me may I walk
In old age, wandering on a trail of beauty, lively, may I walk
In old age, wandering on a trail of beauty, living again, may I walk
It is finished in beauty
It is finished in beauty

I'm really glad that I can do this, walking in beauty. It's what sustains me, connects me to my Self. Here's some eye candy from the hike:

http://flickr.com/photos/timloco/tags/72008waterfallinspection/