Canyon Depths 2016

Macro-cosmic and Micro-cosmic Journeying

In the Spring of 2016 a grand unfolding of opportunity arose for me to dance, sing, flute, revel, be in Ceremony, hike and walk with Ancestors through some of the most spectacular Earth-scapes. Having the courage to experience the Macro-cosmic and Micro-cosmic Inscapes and Outscapes, resulted in the experiences of breaking wide open and merging with the Indescribable!

While discussing the Earth-Mother Canyon experiences with a beloved Grandfather (an Authentic Elder) in Colorado, it struck me that I had intimately received several Sound Journeys through my conduit – amplified, reflected and projected from the canyon walls and the ten directions directly to my Heart!  Overwhelmed by the inconceivable profundity of it all, I began to liquefy!

Entering and descending deep into a Canyon, performing Ceremony and then ascending has a depth of metaphors for one to explore!  We two leggeds enjoy climbing a Mountain with the intent, the goal, of getting to the top - to ascend, attain or transcend something perhaps.   Descending into the canyons was for me a descent into the unknown depths of my Heart-Mind – an inner and outer journey simultaneously. What was revealed and gifted was inconceivably profound and I am forever altered by these adventures into the depths of the Heart of Be-ing.

Instead of attempting the impossible of sharing the vast experiences via these funny little symbols we call words, I post photo memories and these inspirational poetic writings that accompanied me throughout this Journey.

“The necessary thing is after all but this; solitude, great inner solitude.  Going-into-oneself and for hours meeting no one—this, one must be able to obtain.  To be solitary, the way one was solitary as a child, when the grownups went around involved with things that seemed important and big because they themselves looked so busy and because one comprehended nothing of their doings.

And when one day one perceives that their occupations are paltry, their professions petrified and no longer linked with the living, why not then continue to look like a child upon it all as upon something unfamiliar; from out of the depth of one’s own world, out of the expanse of one’s own solitude, which is itself work and status and vocation?  Why want to exchange a child’s wise incomprehension for defensiveness and disdain, since incomprehension is after all being alone, while defensiveness and disdain are a sharing in that from which one wants by these means to keep apart.”

-Rainer Maria Rilke-

Reveling … Soaring

Ever-changing Sky and Earth-scapes.

Sonoran desert morphs to colorful rocky canyons,

graced with current-drifting vultures, crows and ravens.  

Ponderosa pines reaching towards the heavens,

prairie grasses at their roots.  

Scent of vanilla wafts through the air.

Canyon Lands hidden and nestled below

expansive plains of sage and juniper.

Open range sports four-legged wonders.

Fluffy white clouds floating nowhere.

Deep boundless blue sky.

Wooden flute sonorities

echo Sound Journey to its Source.

Descending … within?

Opening Outwards?

Boundaries blurred…

Owl, Horse, Coyote, Raven,

Hummingbird, Canine, Crow,

Sage, Juniper, Pine,

Rock and Canyon,

Grasses, Cacti, Tumble Weed,

Thunder, Lightning and Legions of Cloud people,

Clear Water, Moon and Sun,

Constellations, Cosmos…

…just words…Words…WORDS!

Authentic experience illuminates

Hearts sharing infinite burning secrets…

…HU….MU!!!

Breathing in the Silence…

Immeasurable Peace and Freedom

Wash through the Heart-Mind.

What is ALL THIS?  What is this INTIMACY?

Be still my heart!!!

 -SACRED DRIFTER

“You are all deep.  It is the deepness of you I want to meet within me.  This may bore you, but I do not care because some year you will remember, somehow.”

-Nadia Boulanger-

 

“Who’s living in you?  It’s pretty horrifying when you come to know that.  You think you are free, but there probably isn’t a gesture, a thought, an emotion, an attitude, a belief in you that isn’t coming from someone else.”

-Anthony de Mello-

 

“Life IS Art, for our social practices are embodiments of inner pictures and of inner feeling.  Like art, life projects an inner world. What picture do we have of ourselves? Let us get to know the elements in ourselves, which govern our choices.  This is a lifetime’s artistic labor: not to be gripped by faceless powers, but to see face to face whom we serve.”

 “Art is then a process of transmutation, awakening an inner realm within the countenance of matter:”

-Mary Caroline Richards-

“We have so many reasons to be happy. The Earth is filled with love for us, and patience.  Walking mindfully, we are nourished by the trees, the bushes, the flowers, and the sunshine.  We rely on the Earth, and the Earth relies on us. Whether the Earth is beautiful, fresh, and green, or arid and parched, depends on our way of walking.  Please walk gently on the Earth.”  

Thich Nhat Hanh (THAY)