To have but not hold

Lately, this has been my favorite question to ask around a camp fire. "What things would you pay a million dollars for if you did not have them, but having them ignore?"

It is easy to get caught up in all things busy; to be a completer of tasks, letting the beauty of each day- of every smile on your infant's face- pass you by without fully understanding the beautiful magnitude of the moment.

In my constant effort to Love, Laugh and Live I have been making strides to notice the normal, appreciate the unappreciated, and give every moment, every experience, every sunrise, every time in the forest, everything I eat- give them their fair dues inasmuch as that experience has the capacity to fulfill my journey to Love, Laugh and Live.

So, what are the things that you currently have, but if you did not have them, you would pay a million dollars for? (if you had it to spend- let's not be over critical here)

This list will be ever evolving as I remember re-discovery moments. Here is the first one I though about this morning.

Sunlight. I love alpine starts in the mountains. I love getting up at 2 am in total darkness and cold, putting on a headlamp, and going. Alpine starts are so great because they are always followed by a sunrise which brings warmth and rejuvenation to the weary hiker/climber. I can remember hiking one of Colorado's 14,000' peaks with my sister Lexi. We got to the summit over an hour earlier than expected. I wanted to share with her the experience of watching the sun rise from over 14,000 feet into our atmosphere. From that high up, you can clearly see the curvature of our earth. Oh, and we didn't bring enough warm clothes to comfortably wait out the last hour before the sun was scheduled to rise. My watch displayed the ambient temp as 32 degrees. It is always coldest just
before the sun comes up.

I spent that chilly hour doing jumping jacks, pushups and sit-ups in an attempt to stay warm. I didn't have a jacket- just a long sleeve shirt and light pants. Lexi was wearing my jacket extra clothes and socks. We welcomed the sun and it's warmth onto our tiny summit, embracing every ray we could and letting them soak into our chilled bodies. From the summit we could see down into the valley to our camp and the rest of the group was still sleeping- after all, it was dark down there, over a vertical mile below us.