"Traveling Shoes... The Grand Canyon..."

For purple mountain majesties...

I've posted twice about my October Road Trip out West... I've posted photos of Monument Valley HERE  and of a BEAUTIFUL sunset HERE ...


Here are my photos of the Grand Canyon... again, I totally credit my new digital camera for how wonderful I feel these photos turned out...

From the observation platform at Desert View, South Rim

About 15 miles straight out from this view point is the North Rim of the Grand Canyon...  There is a great sensory overload here... so much to see... almost too much to see... How can something this majestic... this unbelievable... this beautiful... have SO much going on in one place!?!?!

From the observation platform at Desert View, South Rim

I was so taken aback by all of the colors that appear in the layers of different rock and stone that are tiered down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon...

From the observation platform at Desert View, South Rim

On the Trail to Phantom Ranch...

We had decided to take about a 5 mile hike down the face of the Grand Canyon on the Trail that will eventually take one to Phantom Ranch, a lodge that is located on the floor of the Grand Canyon.  This lodge is so popular that one has to arrange reservations almost a year in advance.  It was so overcast... so cold... and at one point, the sun broke through and lit up this formation in the Canyon...

On the Trail to Phantom Ranch...

Scenery like this makes me feel SO insignificant... so small...  When one figures and thinks about what all has transpired on this planet in the millions of years it's taken to form this Canyon... and how our existence on that time line is just a speck in time...

As we were driving from Desert View to Grand Canyon Village, we saw this HUGE herd of elk just off to the side of the highway...  I am estimating that there must have been about 15 or so of them... and this one majestic bull elk...

What a country we have... How fortunate I feel to have been born in this Land...

God Bless America...

~shoes~

"Traveling Shoes... Arizona Sunset..."

On my October, 2010, Road Trip... I headed Westward to find My Balance... My Harmony...  My Spiritual Health.  I saw so much... I feel like I connected with whatever it was that I needed to find.  I believe the the Spiritual World and the Physical World do blend into One...

On the way back to Nevada, we were driving West on Interstate 40 in Western Arizona when this beautiful sunset presented itself. I'm not sure if my traveling partners experienced it quite the way I did... I believe that so much of what we experience in Life is measured by our own Perception of these events...

Look at these marvelous colors that Mother Nature provided that evening... 

"As the sun sets, its light passes through more and more of the darkening atmosphere en route to the eye.... in the process all the warm colours of red, yellow and orange begin to dominate the visual spectrum over the cool colours of blues and greens. The stronger the darkening, the redder the colour." 

"According to Goethe.... light and darkness meet in a turbid medium to create colour." 

"According to current physics.... these warm colours arise through the scattering of of light through Goethe's 'turbid' medium. From molecules in the air, light is scattered according to strictly mathematical laws and in the process these colours are produced. Where light meets darkness, colours flash into existence." 

This one sunset provided such a wonderful exclamation mark to this trip.  These photos appear as they did when I downloaded them from my camera.  There was no enhancement of the colors...


Much of what I feel I am seeking is about Life... of Living My Life, Honoring the Lives of those Dear and Near to Me... and Honoring the Lives of Those who have gone on before Me...


I found these Native American Proverbs... and for some reason, they just seem appropriate...

You must live your life from beginning to end:
Noone else can do it for you.
 (Hopi)


Don't be afraid to cry.
It will free your mind of sorrowful 
thoughts. 
(Hopi)


Life is not separate from death.
It only looks that way. (Blackfoot)

When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice. (Cherokee)

~Namaste~

~shoes~

"Traveling Shoes... October, 2010"

In July, I wrote of the death of my friend, Robert... and when that session of summer school was over, how I wanted to head Westward to Monument Valley, the Grand Canyon, and maybe Sedona, AZ just to heal.  I'm not sure why I have this need, or urge, or awareness that I can be better when I am somewhere like this.


Some would argue that maybe in a previous Life, I had lived in this part of the country... and may have residual affinity for an area that was so important to the people who inhabited this area...


The Navajo have such a strong belief in the Land, and they require that one have the deepest respect for Mother Earth.  There is a belief system that the Navajo have that describes existence as beginning with the 'First World' and extending to the 'Fourth World'... which is the existence/Life we experience.  The Navajo say that they were taught to live in Harmony with the physical world.   They believe that the Physical World and the Spiritual World blend into one.


Navajo Spiritual practice is about restoring Health, Balance, and Harmony to one's Life.


I like this idea.  This makes SO much sense to me, and being in certain places, I find this healing... this relief... a sense that things are going to be OK...

One of My Photos...

The part of Arizona where Monument Valley is located is what I would call "High Plains"...  the land is fairly level, but with these great structures just looming out of the Earth.  They are so breath-taking... I wish I could explain the feeling that I experience when I see these great structures... I am so awed by them.  The altitude here is about 7,000 Ft above sea level... and the tops of these structures are another 1,000 Ft above the floor of the Valley.  So in reality, these clouds really aren't that low at all... we were fairly high.

Another One of my photos...

These are probably the three most photographed mesas at Monument Valley... Left to Right, the two Mittens and then Merrick's Butte... The butte is named after a prospector who was trying to escape from Indians.  He didn't make it, but he did get something named after him.  It is amazing how quickly the skies became over-cast.  Driving into  this area, the sun had been shining, but as we neared this area, it became cloudy...

Another one of my photos...

There is a hiking path that takes one around one of the Mittens and circles back through between that Mitten and Merrick's Butte. It's about 3 1/2 miles and is just unbelievable... we found fresh deer tracks... and they were trailing along the path, and we were excited until we found something that appeared to be LARGE cat tracks that just seemed to appear.  We weren't nervous about deer, but possibly a mountain lion? YIKES!!!

The Mittens and Merrick's Butte at Sunrise...

So... this is one of the stops on the Fall Break Spur-Of-The-Moment Road Trip I took... It is amazing that I could feel the contentment returning to my Body... to my Soul.  It was almost the feeling of 'Being Home'... if that makes any sense.

I didn't see Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote there...

I had recently purchased a new camera and it arrived a few weeks before the trip.  These are my unaltered images... the camera is phenomenal... it's an Olympus SP-800UZ.

I will post photos from other parts of the trip soon...

Namaste...

~shoes~

"Monday, Monday Redux..."

Man am I ever worn out...

... and what a different set of emotions and feelings I have this week compared to last...  Mostly I am exhausted...


I did make the trip... I flew to Las Vegas and met up with Keith and Craig... and we rented a car and headed for everywhere...


It wasn't on my list of things to do, but Keith wanted to see Hoover Dam... it's really magnificent...

... but what I really enjoyed was the lightning storm we found ourselves caught up in!!!


Even after having posted about having had THIS  happen to me, I still reveled in this event!!!




Storms seemed to follow us our entire trip, but it was ok... it has been so long since I've experienced this kind of weather.


I have some great photos to share when I get them downloaded...  The Mittens and Merrick's Butte at Monument Valley...

Not my photo...

The Grand Canyon... 

Not my photo...

and many great rock formations at Sedona, AZ...

Not my photo...

I have soothed that ache... the one that I went westward for back in August... the hope of what I wanted to attain, I wrote about HERE and the disappointment of that trip, HERE.  


Now, I need to sit down and write about my trip... the great thing about traveling alone is being able to pull out my journal and write about whatever strikes me... I didn't have that opportunity on this trip, but I do have  so many photos to go through.  I will post about my stops, and my thoughts...


Oh... the neatest thing... we drove upon a herd of elk. It appeared to be one male and a harem of about 14 or so... and he bugled... it was SO majestic to hear!!!

Not my video...

Mother Nature reminds us of how insignificant we are in the over-all scheme of things... Doesn't she?

I am worn out... I am so tired...

I look forward to getting around to all of you and seeing what all has been going on in your world...

~shoes~

Monument Valley

A few years ago on a return trip from San Francisco, my flight went over this beautiful grouping of rock formations... when I fly, I am like a kid in that I want window seats and my face is pressed to the glass looking to see what all can be seen.

I'm not sure why this area "spoke" to me, but it did... and I've been drawn to it ever since. Even as a kid, when I would watch the old John Wayne westerns... and see these rock formations, I wanted to go... I just hadn't connected to them yet...


These are sand stone shapes that have been eroded away over millions of years.. according to much of what I've read about them... but after having seen them, they look more as if they were shoved up from the ground... they have this appearance of being extruded...



The formations above are called "The Mittens"... they appear to be hands reaching upward from the floor of the valley... These are probably the most recognized shapes from Monument Valley, although I was quite taken with all of them... I'n not sure I had a favorite site within the valley...


I am on some kind of a spiritual journey... there is something I am trying to learn... or need to learn... about myself... I believe the answers to what I am looking for could be anywhere...


Possibly at the Grand Canyon... or in the throes of passion while in the arms of a fantastic lover...


I've been journalling ever since the day my Dad had his stroke... My Dad's Death Journal turned into my Divorce Journal and then morphed into my Spiritual Journey Journal... I'm not sure where I am heading... but its much like that definition that one has heard of pornography or what is deemed to be obscene...


In 1964, Judge Potter Stewart, U.S. Supreme Court Justice, said... "I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced . . . but I know it when I see it . . . "


So maybe that's how I will know when I've finished this journey... maybe we never finish them... maybe we just get tired and pull over when we get tired... and find a comfortable spot... and spend the rest of our time there...


I've told the kids... that when I die... I want to be cremated... and taken into Monument Valley... and have my ashes scattered at the base of one of the Mittens... or maybe even at the base of "Merrick's Butte." This formation is the one often seen in photos that is between the two Mittens... its named for a prospector who was caught by Indians and killed... at least he had a beautiful place to die... as frightful as it must have been!


Or... maybe my ashes can be incorporated into some kind of vulcanized process... and can end up in a dildo... that could be an interesting way to spend Eternity... No??



If you've seen "Forrest Gump," you've seen the above location... this is in Utah looking south into Arizona... This is all located on Navajo Land... I'm about to have a great deal of time off... one of the perks that comes with teaching in a university system... I am feeling this urge to head Westward... so if the weather cooperates, maybe I will see Monument Valley again in a few weeks... or maybe Sedona... I hear its something to see...
I wish I knew where I was going... spiritually, that is... but if we knew, maybe we wouldn't take such wonderful journeys...