life-and-culture outdoors arts climate-change environment health justice music news sports main

Art showing mountains, trees, elk, sky and waterfall - logo for Terra Firma podcast

20220920-CHRISTIAN-GLASS-VIGIL-IDAHO-SPRINGS

200808 Osprey nest shooting. Lots of in and out

Podcast art showing mountain, trees, sky and land

Lethal Restraint-Forced Sedation

Nuggets Lakers Basketball

CMarie lies on the lawn of the house she grew up in, and considers the stars. How little the night needs from us -- we do not need to know the constellations, or which creatures are making what sounds. And still they give us awe.

core/paragraph

This episode takes place on očhéthi šakówiŋ, Arapahoe, Ute, and Cheyenne homelands.

Host and Writer: CMarie Fuhrman Field Recordist: Jacob Job Outdoor audio recorded in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado Editor: Erin Jones Producers: Rebekah Romberg, Kibwe Cooper Engineer: Luis Antonio Perez Art: Maria Juliana Pinzón Executive Producer: Brad Turner Additional Editorial Support: Jo Erickson, Emily Williams Thanks also to Jodi Gersh, Clara Shelton, Arielle Wilson, Brittany Werges, Martin Skavish, Justin Peacock and Jon Pinnow

Terra Firma is a production of Colorado Public Radio's Audio Innovations Studio.

core/embed

…This time, to my parent's lawn in Masonville, Colorado

[Gentle breeze, delicate hoot of an owl] Tonight, I am home on the Front Range and lying on the same ground I laid on for so many nights as a child [sudden insistent chirp]. Descendents of the toads and crickets I knew then chirp and croak now. I look at the stars and wonder what sound they might make. The word twinkle gives me a hint, as does the word shimmer. Then I wonder if the stars are lonely [hooting]. I wonder if they fall now just for the chance that someone might wish upon them. I wonder if, as the lights of the city grow stronger, the Milky Way will all but disappear from our view. I think about the millions of nights before this one and the people who slept on this same piece of earth before me, and I know that lives were not easy then, just as they are not easy now, and I wonder if the night sky and darkness brought the same kind of peace as it does for me, tonight.

Even as a child, I was not afraid of the dark. Not if I was outside.

Back then, as soon as the rest of the house had gone to sleep, I would slip through the screen door, walk barefoot past the threshold, summon my sleeping dog Taffy from her house, and lie on the cool grass of our lawn, Taffy beside me. As if I were the needle of a compass, I pointed my toes north toward Horsetooth Mountain. With my fingers laced beneath my head, the bend of my elbows&nbsp; pointed east and west toward Devil’s Backbone and the Big Thompson Canyon. My eyes were unfixed and wandered the night sky.

I had no interest in astronomy. The only constellations I knew then are the only constellations I know now. The Big Dipper is still pouring the same heavenly liquid it was pouring into the Little Dipper since my dad pointed it out almost 50 years ago. Lights were fewer then, so the Milky Way was as common to my seeing as Horsetooth Peak itself [chirp]. I remember wishing on the first star and every star that dropped, and though I cannot remember those wishes, I like to think that more than a couple have come true.

As a child, the landscape of the stars was a landscape of no thought. No naming, no need to know. It was like staring out at the sea or across a meadow seeking vastness instead of answers. The cobalt Colorado night sky in all its wonder filled me and calmed me in a way that no room ever could [wind picks up, chirps interrupt the stillness].&nbsp;

Tonight, just like those childhood nights before, crickets and toads fill the air with wingsong, croaks and clicks.

This is the gift of night. You do not need to fall asleep in soft grass or in a mountain meadow. You do not need&nbsp; a remote hilltop or even solitude. You do not need to know the names of planets, whether the moon is waxing or waning, or if the stars make up a constellation or if they are falling so that you might cast a wish. You do not need to pray or whisper.

You only need step outside, into the night. With a willingness to experience emptiness, to allow for awe. Come out from under the ceilings and roofs that cover and keep us, and look up.&nbsp; Let the night creatures do the talking. Surrender to the dark. Risk, for a moment, unknowing, wonder. Risk delight. Then carry all of that into your dreams, behind your closed eyes into wherever you make your bed [distant hoots continue, wind pulses steadily through trees].

cpr/highlighted-content

cpr/ad-unit

<div class="gutenbergContent__content--1FgGp">
<h3 class="liveStreamTitle__heading--1M0Mg sidebarTitle__heading--3MUuI">Ways To Support CPR</h3>

	You make the news and music from Colorado Public Radio possible. Your active support builds our community, grounds us in shared experiences, and improves the lives of Coloradans. Support the stories and songs you and your neighbors rely on!

<ul>
<li><a href="https://donate.cpr.org/give" target="_blank">Become A Member</a> </li>
<li><a href="/sponsorship">Become A Sponsor</a></li>
<li><a href="/support/vehicle-donations">Donate Your Car</a> </li>
<li><a href="/support/donate-real-estate/">Donate Real Estate</a></li>
</ul>
</div>

core/freeform

Terra Firma is a podcast about the outdoors, the sounds of the natural world and our place in it. Each episode runs about 5-10 minutes and pairs reflections on nature with gorgeous soundscapes captured in wild places.

Terra Firma

CMarie lies on the lawn of the house she grew up in, and considers the stars.

The Dark (Masonville, Colorado) | Colorado Public Radio

The Dark (Masonville, Colorado)

Home

Colorado Public Radio

https://wp-cpr.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2020/08/CPR-Masterbrand-3000x2000-scaled.jpg

News

Environment

Alison Borden

Music

Outdoors

Police Reform

Higher Education

Christian Glass

Terra Firma is a podcast about the outdoors, the sounds of the natural world and our place in it. Each episode runs about 5-10 minutes and pairs reflections on nature with gorgeous soundscapes captured in wild places.

CMarie Fuhrman

Jacob Job

University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder)

Molly Cruse

climate change

Arts

Court

Basketball

Health

police

Sports

Judges

Justice

Life and Culture

Denver Nuggets

Karla Walker

Friends of Chamber Music

Police Violence

Climate Change

Big Thompson River

Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP)

Insects

Clear Creek County

Climate

CPR Classical in Colorado takes listeners on an in-depth exploration of thoughtfully curated music – with an emphasis on Colorado’s classical community – providing context to a broad range of meaningful and compelling works from past to present.

CPR Classical

CPR News delivers in-depth, insightful and impartial news and information from across the country and throughout Colorado, examining its relevance to our state and connecting it to our communities.

CPR News

To inform, inspire and entertain all Coloradans by delivering meaningful news, music, and cultural experiences to everyone in Colorado using the power of the human voice in all its forms.

The Dark (Masonville, Colorado)

Latest Stories

Jury foreperson in Christian Glass murder trial says there was one hold out on second-degree murder conviction

Here’s your 20% discount code to see guitarist MILOŠ with Les Violons du Roy

Los Angeles Lakers avoid NBA playoff elimination with a 119-108 win over Denver Nuggets

Climate change has ants on the march in Colorado

Sign Up For Our Newsletters

Upcoming Events

Indie 102.3’s April Local 303 Meetup feat: The Mssng

CPR Classical Presents: The Spirituals Project Choir: Spring Concert: Prayer, Protest, and Praise

Indie 102.3’s The Punkyard Presents Soy Celeste Single Release Show

Listen to a Colorado Postcard