We are Grand Canyon bound! It’s our second day on the road, and David is driving. Looking out the window, my mind extends outward to the landscape. Yellow grassland and sagebrush stretch out before me, sometimes narrowing into canyons then opening into undulating tundra. Another moment trees gather then wind-swept grasses and sky spread out wide again. As we roll along, the land forms and reforms before my eyes. To my north, the Wasatch Mountains fill up the entire window. They are massive, and seem not to make room for anything else in that direction. There is no sign we are passing them or gaining ground, as we rumble along. They seem constant and undiminished. They keep a silent vigil. I feel their timelessness...their powerful silence. It moves me…deep within something stirs. In contrast, Interstate-15, with its growing lanes, speeding trucks, and rushing SUVs seems irreverent or at least oblivious to the mountain’s presence.
Our white Prius has its own and constant environment…like a little pod with its own climate, within the changing sea of our surroundings. It contains our excitement and intention for this trip. It carries a small mattress and pillow for sleeping should we need it. It carries provisions for the drive to the Grand Canyon, our needs for our planned all-day hike from South rim to North rim, and our continued journey into the Navaho nation. We have hiking shoes, camelback packs, energy food, healthy snacks…humus and veggies, instant strawberries and cream oatmeal, peanut butter & honey for sandwiches, apples, headlamps, clothes stuffed into efficient stuff-sacks, several pairs of good socks, a compact watercolor set and brush, a dictionary of symbols, spiral writing notebooks and pens. We’ve also nestled my Navaho grandmother’s handmade pot under the passenger seat, and pictures of dear people who took me under their wing when I was 18 and lived for a couple months on the Navaho reservation. Will I find them…after all these years? The pod hums with possibility. I imagine this moment in time and this environment as a human-scale equivalent to the subatomic field of potentiality considered in Quantum Physics. It’s the moment and place before the manifestation of matter or wave. The idea of it lies expectant in the realm of potentiality, just as the coming manifestation of our trip lies in wait…shapeless and unknown at this point in time and space. This is where our intention comes into play, to co-create our future experience. Much like particles at the subatomic level, how they manifest—particle or wave—depends upon our expectation or intention. It depends upon what we believe to be true, what we expect, what we intend. At it’s best, I believe, future experience is co-created by what we know to be deeply true inside us…that point in which we feel in synch, right…like following a trail of resonances as one would bread crumbs along a path marking the way. With our trip stretching out before us…what will it be…wave or particle? Will we complete the hike from the south rim of the Grand Canyon to the North rim in one day, so that we can support our friends who want to run it from north to south on the following day? Will we allow our intuition to lead us to the next chapter in our trip further south,…perhaps to the Hopi Mesas? Will we find my dear friends from Dzilth-Na-O-Dith-Hle, in the Navaho nation, after 32 years? As we fly down Interstate-15, humming along in our well-packed car, absorbing everything, exploring ribbons of thought and weaving ideas, as we follow the asphalt trail stretching out far before us, I am mindful simply to stay open and receptive. That is the intention…to encounter all that awaits us, with the expectation of finding resonant meaning. Thusly, David and I fly down the Interstate with open wings, open minds, and joyous hearts! Thank you to all who saw us off so well from Bozeman! You are helping prepare our way! Take very good care, dear reader. With gratitude and warmth, Stacy
1 Comment
Carolyn Hopper
11/17/2015 12:40:37 pm
Beautiful!
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Stacy M. AuCoin, MSWStacy is an author, speaker, meditator, traveler, mentor, and facilitator of retreats. Archives
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