This is Mount Hood in 2009 taken at three times during the year from the Salmon Creek Trail. Salmon Creek flows directly from Mt. Hood to the Columbia River. I used to ride the trail several times a week. It was my one activity that got me out of the house and out of my bubble. Life was so hard for me. I couldn’t understand how folks could get up and go to work and do it day after day after day.
I recall an episode of Outer Limits, aired many years ago, called “The Bellero Shield”. A woman tricked an alien entity into giving her his force field that formed an invisible, protective sphere around the body. The entity died in the process, and she couldn’t deactivate it fully. Everyone told her that the force field was gone and begged her to resume life, but she could still sense the barrier. Her defense ended up being her prison.
I, too, had formed a defensive shield around myself that never fully deactivated, with the exception of my rides along Salmon Creek. It was my reminder that even though I lived most of my day inside an invisible, timeless barrier the world still lived and evolved. Perhaps someday I could, too.