March for Science Colorado Springs

Happy Earth Day, friends!

After spending most of my morning at an Intro to Aerial Silks class (more on that soon), I made my way to City Hall for the COS rally and March for Science. (If you've been living under a rock and haven't heard, there are science marches going on all across the country today to protest the silencing of scientific evidence around climate change and other serious issues.)

It was fun to see that I wasn't the only one who biked through the dreary half-rain to get there.

I arrived during the speaker portion, but was too far back to hear much of anything, so I focused on reading signs and soaking up general good vibes. 

Some days it feels like I'm alone in the fight; it's so encouraging to be around other people who care enough to take action.

We marched.

Quite a lot of creative signs. My own was a somewhat hastily drawn, Lorax-inspired "I SPEAK FOR THE TREES," but I took notes on some other favorites for future events.

 Hard to get a good picture of the size of the crowd, but organizers were estimating that around 1,000 folks turned up. Not bad for a semi-rainy day, and really pretty good for the Springs, which is a military haven and also sometimes called the evangelical Mecca.

Next Saturday, April 29, will be a similar (in fact, probably much larger) event: the People's Climate March. Though I can't physically attend the climate march, I'll be there in spirit for sure. I hope you will join me in engaging in earth-protecting actions this week and beyond.

Wishing each of you encouragement and hope as we seek to protect our beautiful planet!

A week in photos + a dose of gratitude

All geared up for a (very successful) craft & bake sale fundraiser at church.

Trying out our bobsled formation at the Olympic Training Center.

The training center staff, upon hearing an explanation of Service Adventure and our budget limitations, generously gave us six free tickets for a tour on Saturday.

We also scored free tickets for Saturday night's Colorado Springs Switchbacks game, courtesy of a friend from church, whose company is a team sponsor. People take good care of us.

This is the only other picture I took because it snowed the whole rest of the night, but we had a blast anyway!

While you may be happily ensconced in springtime, with its warm temperatures and budding new life, we're celebrating today's snow storm.

In the Springs, we get nearly all of our yearly precipitation in March and April. While we love the 300+ days of sunshine per year, that also means that it very rarely rains, and we count on snowfall to replenish our water supply. As of mid-March, we'd barely had any snow at all this winter, and fire dangers and burn restrictions were escalating.

So this is a welcome sight.

Living in the West has given me a new appreciation for water. I never complain about rainy or snowy weather anymore. And I'm much more mindful of the novelty, even miraculousness, of the fresh, clean, abundant water that is available to me from a multitude of sources.

May you, too, experience gratitude today, in whatever form it may take.