THE GRAND CANYON

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GAZING INTO THE HEART

GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK

24 April 2018

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"A divine abyss -
a place to look into the world as if through a mighty window."

~ John Barrows

Looking into the Earth, in awe of how beautiful she is, I was struck by a few rambling thoughts…

A note on beauty, and the wisdom of Gaia:

I have never seen anything so glorious and sublime as this Earth in all her guises and places. Our Mama Earth shows us that to be beautiful means to be ever changing and various. She wears both green mosses, and icy blues. Your own beauty can be prickly like the cacti of the red deserts, or soft like the petals of a magnolia tree. It can be messy brows and dirty feet and hairy armpits and a smile that lights up the very air. Your magic doesn’t have to be hid anymore, dear One. We are here to be the lighthouses, the way-finders.

To show up, even as a closed flower, full of mystery, to let yourself be noticed - seen. Not to try to blend in anymore… this is a courageous act, in a slowly changing society. By shining, you are showing the way.

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NATURE NOTES & SMALL WONDERS:

↟ ↟ ↟ m o r n i n g s ↟ ↟ ↟ .
lazy snuggles,
sunrise views,
a cool breeze,
tea brewing,
and an
afternoon adventure
unfolding
in our minds…

the magic of secretly sleeping on the rim of the canyon.

rising to watch the sun creep above the horizon.

stopping to listen to the lonely, far-off cries of a red tailed hawk.

up on the rim, the canyon is so big, it almost looks two dimensional, as if you are viewing a silent painting. But walk down a ways and you are a part of the landscape, which is teeming with flowers and life of all kinds.

I spy: juniper, cedar, yucca, sage, swallows, a hawk, several ground squirrels, and many a curious raven.

the rocks of the vishnu basement layer were formed almost 2 billion years ago! I almost could not wrap my mind around that.

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MONUMENT VALLEY

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EMBRACING THE CHAOS

MONUMENT VALLEY

23 April 2018

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I took a road that wasn’t a road

but it was something I chose

and that’s fine…

~ Tom Rosenthal

This was the theme song to our previous trip around Europe. Nothing seemed to go to plan on that trip. Instead, we ended up forging a new path, our own way; one that was a bit random. We slept in a car, visited places I had been told I should never go, and made crazy last-minute decisions based on whims and fancies. It wasn’t what we had hoped for…
but it was even more than I could have dreamed of!

Now that little song is becoming the theme of our whole lives!
… and that’s fine. Because I love a good whistling tune.

Take Your Guess

by Tom Rosenthal

I didn’t walk how you said I should walk

I walk how I do walk, and that’s fine

It didn’t go how you said it would go

It went how it did go, and that’s fine

{ whistling }

I look out the window somedays

I see a million ways, and that’s fine

I didn’t dance how I wanted to dance

I did a bit of a prance, and that’s fine

Take your guess, spurious at best

Can’t you see it’s all just chaos?

{ whistling }

I breath in and then I breath out

I’ve got a million doubts, and that’s fine

I took a road that wasn’t a road

But it was something I chose, and that’s fine.

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HORSESHOE BEND

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HORSESHOE BEND

23 April 2018

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a great black snake

in a cracked bed of red

We have both been keeping nature journals as we trip along these lands, and I love to look back on the memories written out in soft pencil…

This day’s entry says:

“We slept in a Walmart parking lot, rose early, and watched the sun rise over a bend in the canyon. The river is deep and black at dawn, the rock grows purple and red, and the sun paints the mountains behind, slowly casting a golden ribbon across the land. We watched arm in arm, poised on the edge. Spectacular and thrilling!”