Smokey Morning in the Mountains (3 July 2026)

Gratitude is not a passive response to something we have been given; gratitude arises from paying attention, from being awake in the presence of everything that lives within and without us. … Gratitude is the understanding that many millions of things come together and live together and mesh together and breathe together in order for us to take even one more breath of air, that the underlying gift of life and incarnation as a living, participating human being is a privilege, that we are miraculously part of something, rather than nothing. David Whyte (Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment, and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words)

I wake this day feeling a deep sense of gratitude and more at ease than I’ve felt over the last several days. As I take a breath, I realize the air is not smokey as it’s been in recent days. Dawn breaks with a clear sky and no smokey haze obscures The Mountain.

Settling in with gratitude in heart and pen in hand, the first words that come are ‘gratitude as presence’. The phrase has a familiar ring, but I set that aside for later and open to what The Ink wants to reveal. It responds quickly. Later, a quick search of past Pivot posts reveals Gratitude As Presence – Presence As Gratitude just a couple months back.

 Over the years and especially since last summer as I’ve paid closer attention, this Mountain, Crestone Peak, has become a Beloved guardian, messenger, and friend. I feel its watchful presence over me, over this piece of Earth that I’m blessed to occupy and steward, over the Cottonwood Creek watershed that this land is a part of and into the sacred San Luis Valley beyond.

I sense its guardianship as an invitation to deepen my presence, to listen, and to engage in stewardship and regeneration of the watershed ecosystem as a call to witness, to listen to The Mountain, the land, the water, the plant beings below as emissaries of Mother Earth, of Life. To recall, remember, restore the knowing that deepens alignment of my life with All Life. To recognize that merely observing and enjoying is but the doorway to deeper understanding and stewardship of that ‘something’ which we are each miraculously a part of.

This moment, this time invites me to witness and in that deeper presence to open to being called into action. Not impulsive, fiery, ‘solve the problem no matter the consequences of the solution’. Rather thoughtful, wholistic, integral action that emerges from listening to Life and cooperation with what wants and needs to emerge in service to Life. Listening to Mother Earth and to fellow humans who hear and heed her guidance.

This is the gratitude that rises to awareness as surely it lives in me as presence to Life. How can I not be in awe and gratitude for that?

The Mountain - Guardian, Messenger, Friend