I am grateful for “Important Places.”
Tonight was the last of our Valentine celebrations for the year. I took Chip to the opening night at the Banff Film Festival at Kingsbury Hall. It was awesome. If you’ve never been, you gotta go. There was one film in particular, that has inspired me to write in my gratitude blog tonight. The film, entitled “The Important Places” by Gnarly Bay and Forest Woodward (their names themselves hint of some adventurous locals).
It’s a short flick about a father and son. A story of a father made sure his kids had a lot of outdoor adventures while they were growing up, including rafting, swimming naked in rivers and mountain lakes to name a few. And he also wrote a poem to his son reminding of the importance of going to these special places that they had shared with each other. Well, as we all do, this family gets older and as the son sees his 70+ year old father start to struggle getting up and moving around he decides its time to take his dad back to one of these special places – the Colorado River for a raft ride through the Grand Canyon. It’s a genuinely touching picture that has made me think about – what are my dad’s important places? Is there a place he’d like to return to, that has special meaning in his life? He and my mom took us on a lot of camping trips and vacations growing up. I will always be grateful for those special times, because I know that it where I began my love of the outdoors and of traveling in general.
It also made me think, what are my “Important Places”? So after a bit of thinking, remembering, and appreciating, here are a few of my “important places”.
My first official “important place” is near where I grew up in Colorado. I’m hoping this isn’t going to get me in trouble with my parents. I’ve not told very many people about this “Important Place” because it had to do with riding my bike on a 4-lane highway (only for about a 1/2 mile or so…) to get to the turn off to take me down another road to my destination, Eldorado Springs. When I was in about 5-6th grade, until the time I was in high school, whenever I felt like I wanted or needed to be alone, I’d ride my bike to Eldorado Springs. Mileage-wise it wasn’t that far from where my childhood home is, but it was an adventure each time. First of all, getting across the highway to the right-side to ride, down the hill, up the next and then off to a side road that takes you up to Eldorado Springs. I’d love going to the “end of the road” where the climbers park. I’d never stay very long because I was always afraid of someone finding out where I was – partly I didn’t want to get in trouble, and partly because it was my secret and I wasn’t interested in sharing. But it was thrilling to watch one or two people climb one of the faces and dream about doing it myself. Although, I’ve never climbed there, I have done a little climbing and loved it.
There are other special places as well that easily make my “important places” list, such as a few special beaches in Orange County (not telling which ones – they’re special); a very unique woodsy place in Glacier National Park (not telling where, it’s a bit of a sacred place to me); a hike outside of Telluride, (even during the days of being in awesome shape it still made me catch my breath); Acadia National Park, somewhere in the maze of dirt carriage roads there’s a place that looks like a scene out of Princess Bride; 
a road near Mt. Vent0ux in the South of France where I huffed and puffed to get me and my bike up another mountain; the corner of the Boulevard Saint-Germain and Rue du Buci in Paris; and a recent entry, a part of Guardman’s Pass Trail, where I caught some air on my mountain bike. These, along with a few more places are so near and very dear to my heart because of the adventures I’ve had in these places. Only a few of them have been spent with someone else. They are places of amazing beauty, those WOW kind of places in nature that are etched in your mind forever. Some are on the list, not only for the beauty, but for the moments that brought me there and the time spent taking in the wonder of it all.
We are so blessed to live on the spinning, chunk of rock that we all get to call home. It’s truly an amazing, spectacular place full of adventures waiting to happen. I hope that I will get to return to these places again someday, however, I also know that there are so many more places I want to see and experience. I hope that you take time to think about your “Important Places” and that you have the opportunity to return to them as often as possible. These places can heal our souls and fill us with such exhilaration, which makes our “Important Places” unique to each of us, and often that much more special when we get to share them with others.
The Important Places
Child of mine
come as you grow
in youth you will learn the secret places
the cave behind the waterfall
the arms of the oak that hold you high
the stars so near on a desert ledge
the important places
and as with age you choose your own way
among the many faces of a busy world
may you always remember the path that leads back
back to the important places.
— Dad for Forest, 1986
I am so very grateful for my “Important Places.”
I am grateful for ... 