A Grand Perspective

Wow! When life is flying fast and furiously, there's nothing like Mother Nature to put things back in perspective. After a jam-packed January and February, the week of Spring Break came all too soon it seemed - the first week of March. Too cold to go north. Too far too go to tropical breezes in Maui - we headed for what turned out to be the perfect place - Arizona - home to the most amazing of all earth's many natural wonders - The Grand Canyon.

As I stood on the rim, I looked down a whole mile into its depth - in wonderment that the canyon contains its own mountain ranges, creates its own weather systems, and was carved by the erosion of the persistent Colorado River. Imagine that. Water, pure and simple. But doing its job day after day, eon after eon.

"See that - there at the very bottom," our friendly guide pointed out. "That dark layer's called Vishnu schist. It's over 2 billion years old." 2 billion? With a 'B'!" Talking about seeing straight to the heart of things.

One view. One vision. Laying out the layers of time before your eyes. Two billion years ago right up to today. Kind of makes that constant 'to do' list of mine look a little more manageable. Puts it right back into scale, and reminds me that if I can just keep focusing on the small actions I need to take day after day, maybe the eons really will take care of themselves.

Time to say thanks to those bigger, older parents of ours - Nature and Time. And oh, yeah, don't forget to BREATHE.