“How can I claim to a greater importance than these alpine flowers, than anything that lives here, or even than the very rocks which eventually become the nourishing soil from which it all has to start? The existence of souls in men? And who can tell me the souls do not take up residence in plants and animals, and even these waters and rocky peaks? A higher evolution for the souls in men? So does that make us more important? Everything has its place, everything supports everything else, everything is important to itself- to its own development- and to that which it supports. That a humanoid god willed all this into existence simply to glorify himself -a bit too egotistically human- and or for us, his greatest creation, and our pleasure, use or misuse, seems not either to fit with the way I perceive the world while living close to it here at Little Five Lakes. I wish only to be alive and to experience this living to the fullest, to feel deeply about my days, to feel the goodness of life and the beauty of my world … this is my preference. I am human, and experience the emotions of humanity: elation, frustration, loneliness, love. And the greatest of these is love. Love for the world and its creatures. Love for life. It comes easily here. I have loved a thousand alpine meadows and mountain peaks. To be thoroughly aware each day that I am alive, to be deeply sensitive to the world I inhabit and the world that I am , not to roam rough shot of the surface of this planet for achievement but to know where I step and to tread lightly. I would rather my footsteps never be seen and the sound of my voice only be heard by those near and never echo, than leave in my wake the fame of those whom we commonly call great.”