on our way to a week-long horseback trek into the Wind River mountain range in Wyoming.
I have two truly remarkable daughters 
and we have evolved our parent-child relationship into one of admiration and friendship as they have joined me in adulthood. Yet, there are always reminders that we live in different generations:
We were watching a movie together one night and one of the main characters was walking through the streets of New York listening to I Want to Thank You for Letting me Be Myself on his Ipod through remote earbuds (I WANT those!) He was surrounded by a multitude of people, ensconced by earphones, oblivious to the natural sounds of the world around them.
Has the population been reduced to listening to someone else’s soundtrack as they travel through life, I wonder? There is something fine and heady about absorbing the world around you as it happens, not simply in reflection. The sound of life and human surroundings IS our soundtrack, I think. And there is something to be gained from it, if not only in hearing the screech of the bus just before it hits us.
I say: Doesn’t anyone listen to the birds anymore? 
Daughter responds: Mother, I think that’s Sly and The Family Stone he’s listening to
, not the Byrds.
Long pause and we look at each other.
I say: I meant the BIRDS, my dear (I flap my arms as illustration and grimace)…..
I rest my case.
I
I love, love love this post. So heartfelt and real. Thanks for sharing!
It is a beautiful gift when our children take their places next to us as adults. It is a mesmerizing experience to hear my daughter unknowingly reflect back to me a thought or opinion that I recognize as something I instilled in her at some point along her path. The astonishing part is to hear it reflected through her prism of perception and still recognize its origin.
That story really cracked me up! I have had the dilemma when walking home from work of “to listen to music or not to listen to music.” Sometimes I like to see and hear what is happening around me (most of the time), but at times I want to just lose myself in the music to escape the world around me and (hopefully) put me in a better mood!
The Windrivers are beautiful! That must have been a great experience!