Our Beautiful Home

I have been looking forward to fall, because my husband promised me that he will take me to the fall color belt in California.  I would die to feast my eyes with those fall hues. What a magnificent gift from Mother Nature!

The promise had been delivered.  Last week we went to Lake Sabrina and Mono Lake. We walked in the morning sniffing the fragrances and reveling in the beauty of fall hues.  We drove and parked at an elevation of 9,000 ft. and walked up for a mile from there.

My mind’s eye painted a picture of the lake like a bride decked up in orange, yellow, pale green ensemble and gleamed in the morning sun. Lake Sabrina  looked stunningly pristine and scenic. 

I’m so blessed to be a part of this beautiful planet and nurtured by Mother Nature. The combination of morning chill and warmth of our sweaters gift wrapped us in coziness. We stood on the wooden bridge watching people walk, fish, and take pictures. The calm and peace was unexplainable.

From there we drove to Mono Lake which is another enigma.  I blinked like a shutter-bug when I read the age of the lake – 760, 000 yrs approximately.  The visitor center lady told us that the lake has no single fish but the basin is a home for millions of birds belonging to over 300 species.  How do they survive?  They gobble algae, shrimp, and alkali flies which slither on the banks.

The other intriguing sight is the formation of Tufa towers on the shoreline. Some formations seem like sphinx, bull head, and minarets to me. The formation is natural. It’s, indeed, a photographer’s delight and a pack of them already there running in all directions lugging their paraphernalia to click the best sight of this marvelous place.

On the way back to our hotel we drove through the June Loop which was like a neck-lace road with small lakes strewn along it.  The splicing mountains bordering the lakes stood as gigantic bodyguards on the vigil for the beauties.  If we hadn’t taken this small detour we sure would have missed a precious thing in our lives.

We took a good rest in the night and embarked on our return journey. On the way we visited Mount Whitney and Red Rock Canyon. I will write about these mystifying pieces of nature another time because I don’t want to overdose you.

My epilogue: From the heavenly patchwork of nature, in the next five hours, we catapulted into a concrete jungle filled with brick and mortar structures and with sound waves from the automobiles impinging our eardrums. What a sea of difference!  This place also would have been the same one like the one I’m blessed to visit – maybe some millions of years ago.  Mother Nature is so liberal in giving more than we need. Abundance is always redundance.

I remember my economics lecturer explained about the law of  diminishing marginal utility theory in simple words : “When you eat one apple, it will taste delicious, second one will taste good, third one will taste ok, fourth one will not taste at all, fifth one you don’t want to eat,  and the next you will throw it away.

That what is happening now.  There was an abundance of vegetation, water, resources, animals, marine world, clean air, mountains, snow, timely monsoons, farming, fresh milk, and family. Now there are skyscrapers, hazards industrial wastes, polluted air, scarcity of resources, upside down seasons, endangered animal and marine species, packaged food, unidentifiable diseases, disappearing snow sheets, wars, and disintegrated families.  What a barter!

Earth is our home. A beautiful home. Our children and their great-grandchildren also need this home. They are also entitled to own what we are enjoying today. I suppose. Can we protect our beautiful home for them?

(Pics: Ganesh Devan)

Don’t forget to read “Thought of the Day”.

Links: http://www.monolake.org/

http://www.lakesabrinaboatlanding.com/