Evening Visits
Lord, help us understand
what we cannot know for sure,
every day’s a gift,
Every evening an opportunity,
to practice grace and thankfulness,
to place our faith in community,
For all we have, for all the nows
and now, is the chance
of being, day and evening,
Together and alone,
to walk the shore and mountain path,
to lift our voices,
Work for peace,
honor hope,
love greatly.
Greg Hobbs (written 9/11/2001)
(Colorado Foundation for Water Education, Colorado Mother of Rivers, Water Poems at 75)
The “Evening Visits” post carries more meaning than perhaps most readers know. On a cloudy evening in June, 1985, the Colorado water community lost a massive fund of legal and engineering expertise, and some very fine people: John Land and Charlie Elliott, water attorneys. Harlan Erker and Al Hogan, water engineers. These individuals were on a private charter flight to the San Luis Valley to attend a testimonial dinner for water attorney John Carlson, with whom all of the aforenamed had worked on SLV water issues. The small plane, whose pilot, apparently, was disoriented in fog, hit Windy Peak at cruising speed. Obviously there were no survivors. Those of us who were in the water community at that time and who had worked with these folks (as I had) felt an unconscionable sense of loss. As always in these horrific situations, we picked up the pieces and moved on. Many thanks to Justice Hobbs for his photos and all too appropriate words.
Yes this beyond belief occurrence as the plane carrying our dear friends failed to clear Windy Peak in the very range these photos show as seek from the deck of our mountain cabin near Conifer. Greg Hobbs