I’ve Counted the Rings

My greatest fear of a wildland fire is losing my forest.
I have spent enough time above timberline to know the experience
of returning to the comforts of the forest below.
I will never lose that bonding with the forest.
I’ve counted the rings on my largest trees
and they are 100 years old.
Losing our house would be a terrible inconvenience.
But that would likely be over in a few years.
After the fire, the views of Mt. Evans will still be there.
After the fire, the creek and ponds will still be there.
After the fire, the meadow will quickly recover.
It would take a century for all of my trees to grow back.
That loss would be unbearable.

Previous Articles

Flooded With Thoughts

I don’t know what I expected for January, but what I got was a flood of thoughts across the emotional spectrum of joy and sadness.  One cannot help but share an immense sorrow for the California families who, in a matter of hours, lost everything. I can’t stop...

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Giving Thanks

This year, I want to give particular thanks to having my wonderful wife, Holly, in my life for the last 15 years. She is absolutely the most amazing woman I have ever known. She is always there for her daughter, Carina, and me no matter how badly the wheels are...

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Make It Simple

Long ago, I recognized a pattern in my design efforts. It takes me many creations of workable solutions before arriving at what I consider an elegantly simple design. Most often, looking back at my first design, I can be harshly critical, as in: How could you be so...

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Mountain Pine Beetle

At the risk of being called “Captain Obvious,” I want to draw attention to the comeback being staged by the Mountain Pine Beetle in our “Evergreen” forests. I say comeback because there was a major infestation in the late 1990s. That’s when Summit County was hit so...

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Fly and Grace

Wow. As I sit here writing, I just noticed that it’s raining again—one of those delicious, soaking showers. It must be almost a week now that the Global Warming Gods have taken pity on us! Now, let me share with you two of my favorite verses from John Denver’s “Rocky...

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Something Difficult

Life’s journey is littered with choices between taking the easy road or the one more difficult. We often find the choice is driven by pragmatism—i.e. “This is not that important to me. I need to find the easiest way to move on.” But, what if you find that nothing is...

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About The Author

Doug Kinzy

With a master’s in electronic engineering, Doug worked for major companies in that field before switching to real estate for 12 years. From that experience, he hatched the idea for Colorado Serenity and never looked back. Over years past, Doug filled his spare time with mountain climbing, skiing, cycling and programming. He now fills his time working with his longtime girlfriend—now wife—Serenity editor Holly Jorgensen, making Serenity the best it can be while occasionally running off to favorite Colorado hideouts.