"Travelin' Shoes..."

Well... it's that time again!!!  Ol' Shoes has got them travelin' shoes...

Elvin Bishop

Summer school ended this past week... we had the exams on Thursday... got the grades turned in Friday... This has been a tough summer... what with the death of Robert... and some other nonsense in which I didn't want to be involved...


My spiritual fuel tank is on low... I need to be rejuvenated... I posted HERE about a trip I made to Monument Valley... I think I posted that I felt that was one of the most spiritual places I've ever visited...  And this past March, I visited Dealy Plaza and the Alamo in Texas... again... places.

This is the book I've been spending a great deal of time reading lately.  I have consciously been on somewhat of a spiritual journey since the death of my Dad and my soon-to-occur divorce. I guess I have hoped that whatever I reached spiritually would help to heal some of the hurt... some of the pain... that I've endured.

Monument Valley

The Mittens and Merrick Butte

There is a chapter in the book titled, "Spiritual Geographies"... In this chapter, the authors say that some of us hold specific sites to be spiritual if they hold some meaning for us.  Monument Valley affected me this way, but I can't explain the attraction... the draw... that places like this have over me. I just want to go...


In this book, something called "thin places" are mentioned... and they are defined as 'a place where a person experiences only a very thin divide between past, present, and future times." Monument Valley is such a place for me. Even this afternoon, TCM ran "The Searchers," a John Wayne movie filmed mostly on location in MV... and I just waited for visions of the familiar sites that I know are there.


One of the places I may head for is Arches National Park, in Utah...

The point of going somewhere... 

is to simply see what is there.

These are such fragile structures... just in the past year or so, one of these arches collapsed... nothing lasts forever... nothing. But there is more to it than just going to see what is there.  There is a draw... something calling me.


Another place I may head for, and it's close in proximity to Arches, is Bryce Canyon National Park...

"Any place where the Mystery breaks 

through into our consciousness is Holy."

I believe this statement. I have never felt closer to God than I have at some of these fabulous places.  Poet and essayist Kathleen Norris is said to have created the term 'spiritual geography' as a way to get at the peculiar and important ways a specific region speaks to our souls and transforms us.


If I am really feeling ambitious, I may head for Sedona, AZ... if for no other reason than to spend some money in their economy... 

Just one of the many beautiful scenes 

located around Sedona, AZ

If I make it to Sedona, I may take a day and run up to the Grand Canyon... or maybe I will try to spend a day or two in Sante Fe, NM...

Another great Elvin Bishop song...

So... if everything goes kinda ok...

I think I'm hitting the road Sunday morning...

~shoes~