No Sleeping At The Traffic Light
/Songwriter Jackson Browne spins a tale about the ordinary rhythm of our daily lives:
“Where the sirens sing and the church bells ring
And the junkman pounds his fenders
Where the veterans dream of the fight
Fast asleep at the traffic light...”
No Sleeping At The Lights
Driving in the Pacific Northwest, the surrounding mountains reign over the lowlands. Their dignified mountaintops, especially when topped with snow caps, serve as a reminder that Valhalla shimmers above us.
Take your pick – the Cascades, the Olympics, or the great one itself, Mt. Rainier.
Caught up in the harried business of the day, you swing around a corner and, for a moment, your breath catches when the mountains pop into view. For just that second, you hear the call and humming of the wide expanse of nature.
I often think of that line in Jackson Browne's song when I'm driving around in western Washington.
Veteran or not, there's no sleeping at the traffic lights here. The views are too good to be missed.
The Mountain Is Out
There's a saying in the Seattle area: "The Mountain is out" – it means the sky is clear enough to see Mt. Rainier. Given the rainfall and cloudy days in the area, this is an event worth noting among the natives.
According to Barry Popik’s etymological dictionary, The Big Apple, this phrase was referenced as long ago as August 1951 in a syndicated column in a newspaper from Illinois, the Registered-Republic:
“When Seattle folk can see Mount Rainier... the common phrase is,
Oh, look: the mountain is out today.”
A Mountain Greets You
On a clear day in one mountain town, Mt. Rainier welcomes you at the traffic light.
It's one of the rare times you hope that you'll get stopped at a red light, just so you can drink in the scenery.
When Smoke Fills The Sky
In the summer of 2017, a smoky haze from the wildfires in British Columbia drifted over Washington State. The mountains were obliterated from view.
If you were seeing it for the first time, you'd think there were no mountains.
For those of us used to seeing The Mountain as we drive into town, it was unsettling for it to suddenly be invisible.
A 12,000 foot mountain erased.
Below, same intersection, no hint of a mountain (no filter, no Photoshop).
The mountain is supposed to only disappear behind the clouds.
With the smoke from the wildfires, The Mountain wasn't out even though we had no cloud cover. A massive volcano had vanished, beamed into another dimension.
If you didn't know a mountain was supposed to be there, you'd never have been the wiser.
So much for our perceptions of reality.
What We Perceive
With The Radiance Technique® (TRT®), it's possible to apply TRT® hands-on in whatever circumstance you find yourself. Whether The Mountain is Out or not.
With ongoing use of TRT®, you can deepen your awareness of things seen and not seen, the deeper energies behind our perceptions.
Even to include the mountains.
It's like the saying that you know you're from The Pacific Northwest if:
You can point to at least two volcanoes,
even if you cannot see through the cloud cover.
