Getting Away

Sometimes, I need to take a break.  Not just a break from working, or thinking, but a physical break from my current surroundings.  Just get away to a new, or sometimes even a familiar place, to shake up the mindset and start "seeing" things again.

Wupatki / Wukoki Ruins north of Flagstaff is just such a place for me.  I feel a kinship to the land and the dwellings there.  To stand on one of the high places, and look out across the land towards the painted desert on the horizon is simply breathtaking and puts everything in perspective.  I am reminded that I am not the center of the universe, merely an integral part of it... and there is something reassuring and peaceful in that knowledge.

 

Fourth of July

There's something about fireworks on the fourth of July that just brings out the little kid in everyone.  From the time the show starts to the time it ends, the fireworks capture the fullest attention of your being.  You follow the trail of the next rocket into the sky with the utmost concentration, not wanting to miss that magical moment when it reaches the top of it's heavenly climb and explodes in a wonder of color and shapes, followed closely by yet another.  When the show finishes in a climax of color and explosions, you find yourself exhaling, almost like you've been holding your breath the whole time, and on the way home, you playback all that you saw in your mind's eye.  Every year, we look forward to this celebration, and every year we go home with a smile on our face, and memories to carry with us.

Fay Canyon Sedona

Went for a beautiful hike this morning.  Wanted to get an early start to beat the summer heat, but didn't get on the trail until 9 am.  I bumped into two groups of people on their way out, but thankfully, those were the only people I saw, until I was coming out of the canyon, some three hours later.  I have been up Fay Canyon many times before, but had never been to the end of the canyon.  I have been up to the natural arches high on the cliffs halfway up the trail.  I have climbed up the lone stone sentinel at the fork in the canyon and looked in awe back down the canyon into Sedona.  And I have followed the stream bed past and further up into the canyon, but always turned around before reaching the end.  My goal this morning was to make it all the way to the end and climb up to the indian ruins that I had read were at the canyon's end.
When I got to the base of the canyon end, I looked up and saw what must be an awe-inspiring waterfall during a monsoon.  The undercut cliff was huge and high, and in the undercut, maybe 200' above where I was standing, I could make out the ruins.  I had arrived.  The only sounds that I heard was the rustling of the leaves of the trees, and the song of the native cliff swallow.  Climbing up, I stopped at the undercut and rested leaning against the cool rock and dissolved.  Totally appreciating at that moment that we are all one.... being.  It was so peaceful and welcoming to be there.  I wandered around the rock face, touching, taking photographs, just breathing everything in until something happened that told me it was time to leave.  As I was climbing up a rock face, an agave stabbed me in the leg and I started bleeding profusely.  It brought me back to the reality that perhaps I was getting tired and not paying attention anymore.  I finally stopped the bleeding and headed back down the slope and back into the canyon.  By the time I reached the mouth of the canyon, I was sore, tired, thirsty, and hot.  But for those three hours, I was able to completely immerse myself in the nature of being.