Stairway to Heaven

Stairway to Heaven.

Ok, ok, maybe not sitting around all blissed out talking scriptures with JC and Big Daddy. Not even an oasis full of virgins waiting to service my every need, but, hey, it's heaven. These are the stairs at the beginning of a nice little loop trail just as you're approaching Cloud Croft, New Mexico. Stepping up each of these is a step toward heaven. Yeah, I know, I huff and I puff and I can feel my knees begin to burn. But, I'm alive. I'm smelling the pines, and listening to the birds. Zig zagging between tall pines and firs, I find myself walking off the trial to avoid the ice, vistas of White Sands and Cloud Croft present themselves as the trail winds around the mountain. Mountain meadows, covered in last week's snow lay beside stands of, now denuded, aspins as Kamala, Halalujah and I meander along the trail until the ice on the trail tells us to turn back.

It's a cool, crisp Saturday and we are the only ones on the trail. I used to watch a lot of sports on TV, but about 12 years ago I gave it up. I loved it, but I just got tired of watching and made a decision to stop being a spectator and get out in IT. It was a really good decision. Now, I'm not a fanatic about it. If we go over to someone's house and they are watching a game, I watch, I participate, I can still appreciate a good shot, a good play, a nice, bone crunching tackle. but, frankly, none of them can come anywhere near the feeling of a walk in the woods, or a ride on the bike, or a paddle across the lake in a canoe. It's the DOING, that make the difference. I have gone to High School sporting events, not for the thrill or the excitement, but because I knew the students playing in them. I got excited for them; yelled in support, felt great when they won and sad when they lost, but, I've got to tell you watching the most exciting sport doesn't even come close to "climbing that stairway to heaven". Nike had it right in their slogan, "Just do it" . And, here's a little secret, do it with a really good friend and it's like icing on the cake.