In the wide, dusty bowl of this desert, there are, tucked away in a few select corners, jewels of sparkling colours; water pockets that sit within the arid folds, in a white hot blanket of sand.
These are oases.
Places of life, fertile and rich with the sediments created by many thousands of fallen leaves, sycamore shaded, beloved by drifting winds… there are flowers here, and small, scampering animals. Life flows with the direction of the chattering waters.
These are also places of peace… separated by vast swathes of dry land, they are like small islands in a beige sea. They are birdsong and sleepy afternoons. Wednesdays that stretch out like childhood Sundays.
One such island became a cocoon space, for us, during our journey west.
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CHANGING OUR PLANS FOR PEOPLE & PLACE
Before we left Colorado, I made a million-and-one plans, all centered around one Grand Master Plan. That plan was to visit all the National Parks in the USA.
We started in Utah, weaving our way through all five of the parks there. Then we visited the Grand Canyon in Arizona.
At some point I began to feel odd - in all these places, with all these plants and animals, I felt out of place. The signs everywhere, instructing me not to wander off the carefully placed pathways, not to touch, just to look… I felt like I was a visitor in a museum.
I understand the need for preservation - fine soil crusts that form over thousands of years need protecting, and animals that are fed hundreds of peanuts everyday will get more than a little lazy and chubby.
But I believe in a world in which people belong. In which we have a place. In which we are as natural as the roots and the sky, the leaves in the trees. I believe in people developing intimate and personal connections with the wider world around them. Dancing, digging toes into the Earth, weaving grass and flowers, baking apple pies, and getting a little lost are essential in my eyes.
Then we hit Sedona, and things seemed to fall apart in the most perfect of ways.
I let go, stopped clinging to what didn’t feel right, made more room instead for the unknown to unfold… and into that space leaped the whole wide world! Synchronicities, meetings with beloved ones, days where we went and did things I never planned for: wild swims and hikes, days where it rained and we did nothing at all. It was more beautiful than I could have ever imagined.
No longer a visitor, but a being who belongs, I am ready to step out of this cocoon space, ready to let it unfold as it will.
