Wayfinding Middle age is a chance to reorient yourself

摘要

THE DRY SHRUBLAND of Colorado's Front Range foothills encourages a certain downward concentration. Rattlesnakes curl under mountain mahogany. Jagged rocks could break an ankle. I've run and hiked these trails for 30 years, and sometimes I watch so closely for hazards on the ground that I miss subtle changes in the landscape-the varying shades of green after spring rains and summer monsoons, the birdsong shifts of avian migration, the cumulus clouds of morning transforming into cumulonimbus thunder-heads by afternoon. Maybe these spaces have become too familiar. Maybe I take them for granted.