Stolen Breath

This morning I decided to venture out of my neighborhood for my jog-walk-jog. We do have a track right behind my house at the school but school's in today so I decided to walk to the top of the steepest hill in Thornton, which just happens to border the south side of my neighborhood. I knew not to underestimate the length and steepness of the hill but I wanted to run to the top without stopping. So I did. It felt good. Close to the top I heard myself saying one-foot-in-front-of-the-o-ther...one-foot-in-front-of-the-o-ther, over and over to keep my pace. As I reach the top I turn around to look behind me to relish in my accomplishment when I am taken by surprise. It wasn't the hill climb that I am proud of. I realize, just then while I was half bent in exhaustion and wiping the sweat from my forehead, that I live in one of the most beautiful places in all the world. From the top of this hill I see over all the houses in my neighborhood all the way down through the Boulder Valley, straight up to the Flatirons. As I look from my left to my right there are mountains charging into the sky. What little breath I have left over from running up the hill is snatched from my lungs. I round the corner and continue northbound, now walking, letting my muscles recover. This is the end of the sidewalk. The rest of my route would be dirt mixed with rocks and wild grass. I call this the "crunchy" part of my walk. I love the sound that my Nike's make when they step into the ground against the dirt. After a mile or so I head west and am able to enjoy the beauty of the mountains once more for another mile. On this leg of my jog-walk-jog I encounter two horses who trot over to speak with me when they see me coming. They must get fed by other people on the same path regularly because they are not afraid of me. I say to them "hello sweet babies" and wave to them. I keep on my way but from a distance I hear "baaaa". I think to myself, "did those horses just baaa at me?" I stop, back up and realize that there are also two sheep laying in the shade near the horses. So I yell back, "hello sweet babies to you too". The closest one says "baaaa" again. So again I say "hello sweet babies" even louder. Again he says "baaaa". He doesn't skip a beat. We go back and forth about 10 times before I finally say good bye. There is a big hill of dirt that I climb next. When I reach the top, I look around. I can almost see my house. Its a couple of fields over (our neighborhood is in the middle of rural farm land). I squint my eyes to see if I can zoom in on it. Its too far away which tells me that I must get going. I walk down the hill and pick up my pace to a slow jog and cross the rail road tracks (soon to be light rail). As I make a left to head south towards my neighborhood a car passes me by. It is a rough looking man and I wonder to myself if he is good or bad. Once I had looked up the pedophiles in my area on the Internet and found that there was one that lived in the rural area across from my neighborhood. For a second I wonder if it is him. Then I wonder what people think of me as they see me running around the neighborhood all the time. I thought I better just keep my thoughts to nature and jogging and get home. So I do.