Picture Perfect
The annual Colorado Springs Parks calendar captures many of our beautiful landscapes and is a treasured gift.
Colorado Springs is a wonderful place to visit for vacation, attend a seminar or company event and/or live here all year round. I first visited Colorado Springs to attend an uncle’s memorial service in a mid-summer. Expecting my three-day stay to be hot and humid like Houston, Texas, where my wife and I lived at the time, I was pleasantly surprised to enjoy the dry heat. I didn’t sweat to death! Other relatives prearranged the transportation, so I was a passenger and tourist during my brief visit.
Upon returning home, I asked my wife if she was interested in moving away from Houston. She replied, “When?” In the next months, we gathered information about Colorado Springs and three other western cities…and settled in Colorado Springs. In the following year, we relocated to our new city of residence.
It’s easy to promote Colorado Springs with its variation in elevation, landscape and scenery. You can hike, drive or take the Cog Railroad to the top of Pikes Peak at 14,115 feet. Many traverse around the lower elevations at 6,135 feet and above. Each year the city averages with 300 days of sunshine and 20% humidity. With 18,000+ acres of parks and open spaces throughout the local area, our public of 450,000 people has room to breathe in the beautiful nature that’s a few minutes away from any point. If you experienced only one of our Colorado Springs’ parks, trails, open spaces, museums, golf courses, historical buildings, recreation areas or tourist destinations each day – it would take a whole year to see and experience it all.
Our local Colorado Springs, Colorado Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Department prints a calendar each year. Local photographers are asked to submit photographs for a process to be selected for the highlighted front cover photo, the 12 months of the year pictures and some honorable-mentioned photos. Each year there are some iconic and B-R-E-A-T-H T-A-K-I-N-G photographs that are picture perfect!
With only one sponsor funding the calendars, about 1,500 were printed each year since its inception in 2014. Most people who received the calendars were elected and appointed city leaders, city employees, board volunteers with city organizations and some others. Each year I was given about 100 calendars…and gave them to friends, people I met, tourists and business owners to give away to clients. During my two terms on the Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Advisory Board, I suggested ideas to increase the number of calendars printed each year…and I offered my time to do them. One was to find more sponsors and the other was offering the calendars for sale in local stores to the public. Each time neither option was considered. When the Discover Colorado Springs 2018 Tribute to Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services calendar was released, fewer copies were available because of the rising print costs.
After asking the Parks department front desk, I was given two 2018 calendars. I kept one calendar for myself and gifted the other.
I gave the calendar to a neighbor, Bob, though he was not who I first considered. That was because months before a conflict developed between us. Each time I entered and exited our subdivision, I drove past his home and was reminded of our disagreement.
God has funny ways of bridging gaps in broken human relationships. Each time I entered and exited by Bob’s home, God prodded my heart with, “Give him the calendar.” I reasoned for a few days that others deserved the calendar more than Bob. On a Friday morning, I put the calendar on my car’s passenger seat with one of my cartoon cards. Just before exiting our subdivision, I stopped and filled out the card with words including “Merry Christmas” and hoped for God to bless him and his family. Inserting the card into the calendar, I got out of my car and rang their doorbell. A young teenager answered the door and I asked for Bob. She told me he was not there so I gave her the card and calendar to give to him. In flipping through it, the young lady gasped at some of the beautiful pictures. I then gave her one of my business cards and asked her for Bob to call so we could have coffee together. Then, I got back in my car and spotted Bob and two children coming towards me on the sidewalk.
As I rolled down my car passenger window, I motioned for Bob to come over. Our conversation included about me leaving the calendar, card and business card with the young lady. I said, “Bob, I only received two calendars this year and God told me to give you one of them! Let’s get together for coffee before or after Christmas.” I reached out my right hand and Bob and I shook hands together.
In reading Proverbs 2:1-5 and John 10:27-28, listening to God is an asset!
Questions to Ponder? 1. What are some of your prized possessions? Why are they prized and who will you give them to when you pass away? 2. Ever worked with government in a partnership, on a volunteer board or as an employee? Do you think our City’s parks department should find more ways to print more calendars? 3. Do you think that the people you know deserve the blessings and material things they receive? 4. What should determine the worth and value of human life, relationships and what is right and wrong? 5. What determines your moral compass…what do you stand on for your foundation…and/or where do you turn when things go awry? 6. Do you listen to God…especially when you “already believe what is best?” 7. Do you believe in God’s promises and know about the free gifts that are available to you? 8. Do you understand God’s economy and why serving Him is an option for you?
Picture Perfect is written by Charles H. Castle. He’s written 100+ non-fiction short stories with 30 of them in his book, Where are the Instructions?. It’s available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, other retailers and through www.CharlesCastle.com. You can reach the author in Colorado Springs, CO at [email protected].