Life in the fast lane...

Life in any metropolitan area is about getting places. And getting there as quickly as possible...

You drop the kid(s) off at school... 

and head off for a busy day: housework, work, or before you get to any of that, if you live in the Mile High city you may very well hit the exercise trail

because apparently Denver is the fourth fittest city in the U.S.A. at least according to Men's Fitness magazine but also earns a spot on America's Top 10 Healthiest cities because it offers "more possibilities for sports enthusiast than any other city in the country" 

This comes as no surprise to anyone who lives here as there is tremendous pressure, particularly on the younger generation, to be fit and it seems that everywhere you go people are exercising with vim and vigor and vehemence.  

I have no dispute with exercise. In fact, I myself enjoy yoga (immensely!), walking, hiking, biking and playing a lively game of tennis during the course of my mornings or evenings but I have noted a tendency on the part of many that I have come across- whether I am walking on a path such as this one

or hiking up a rugged mountain path such as this...

 

that those on the path to the Exercise Hall of Fame seem to have no consciousness of the beauty that surrounds them. And lest you think that I am being too judgmental or jumping to conclusions, bicyclists barreled past on the path just above moments before I took this picture and were not the first or the last to nearly knock us over in their haste to descend down the paths NOT intended for Tour de France try-outs that will never be (even though signs explicitly remind them to allow hikers to pass first!). 

With their heads burrowed down on their shoulders, they ride as though being driven, unaware that just off to their left (or right) are lovely vistas & rivers that flow past neighborhoods of twittering birds

peaks that reach into the heavens

 

or the final flowers of the season 

but you won't see that as you go racing by zealously burning the calories from last night's meal, aggressively building muscle and mass because...

and though the sign says the "The secret to seeing the prairie..." The truth is, The secret to seeing the world is to slow down and look carefully. The world awaits you! 

Namaste!