edge.

“Living systems never really settle down.” – John Holland

“Plants and animals that do settle down do not survive for very long.  It is as if life is forever trying  to keep itself exquisitely balanced on the edge between chaos and order…..Living systems that survive in the wild, from a flying starling to a rain forest orchid, must learn to adapt with the shifting ecosystems around them, retaining their precarious ecological balance at the vital edge of survival between two competing but necessary worlds. Order and chaos.” – David Whyte

* * *
* * *

Comb Wash

 

* * *

* * *

Enough

Enough. These few words are enough.

If not these words, this breath.

If not this breath, this sitting here.

This opening to the life

we have refused

again and again

until now.

Until now. – David Whyte

 

* * *

Comb Ridge, Utah

* * *

“A bedrock faith in my own perceptions. How would that dangerous path on the ridge between chaos and order look if I were to say that everything in my life is enough, at least to take the next step, to begin?” – David Whyte

* *

who.

“Michaelangelo was asked how he sculpted the magnificent classic statue of David. “I looked into the stone and saw David. Then I simply cleared away everything that wasn’t David.” Our work is exactly the same. We do not have to create who we are……we just need to discover what about our life is not who we are, and let it go.” – Alan Cohen

* * *

Rawhide Mountain

http://www.summitpost.org/rawhide-mountain-nv/783754

* * *

“Who am I?”….sincere, consistent inquiry into this most important question will eventually reveal that many of the things we identify with, are not who we are. When all of our illusions are peeled away, only divinity remains.”- Alan Cohen

* * *

Ward Mountain

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/59905230

* * *

“Who are you? You are not your name, which could change.  Your identity goes far beyond your relationships. You are not your bank account, which rises and falls. You are not your house, from which you come and go. You are not your job, which is temporary.  You are not your emotions, which wax and wane.  You are not your religion, which is a mutable belief system. You are not your body…You are not even your thoughts, which vacillate and turn in all directions. If you are not any of these things that you commonly identify with, who are you? We are spiritual beings, and any other identity detracts from the majesty of our true essence.  Let go of false beliefs about yourself, that the true you may shine in all its splendor.” – Alan Cohen

* * *

sensitive souls.

“In a college psychology class, I was required to read a book subtitled, “The Mental Institution as a Last Resort”. The book’s thesis was that many people in mental institutions are not crazy, but just more sensitive than most people in society.  The authors suggested that many mental patients are simply too fine tuned to fit into the mainstream, and an institution is a safe place – similar to an ashram or monastery – where they can be who they are without having to adapt to a society that is in many ways more insane than they are.

* * *

kings canyon

http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/North_America/United_States_of_America/California/Kings_Canyon_National_Park-753470/General_Tips-Kings_Canyon_National_Park-TG-C-1.html

* * *

“Hilda Charlton noted that souls who are particularly fine-tuned emotionally, artistically or spiritually are often unable to cope with the heaviness of the world, and so they turn to various addictions to escape.  Alcoholics, drug addicts and many mental patients are highly evolved souls who cannot find comfort, acceptance or a forum for expression in their worldly circles, so they sedate their sense of homelessness with chemicals or insanity. Indeeed, many great artists, musicians, thinkers, inventors and visionaries have sought to take refuge in addiction or illusion.

* * *

Deadman Canyon, Kings Canyon National Park

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/77200510

* * *

“…..we do not need to escape from the world we see, for it is not a place of truth…..In the Hindu culture, holy men and women are revered and cared for by the society. Saints and mystics are not tested, prodded, poked, cross-examined, rationalized, written-off and shunned as they are in the West. In that culture, genuine visionaries are supported to do their spiritual work… Let’s honor our sensitivity and create a supportive space for talented souls to express their true selves..” – Alan Cohen

* * *

desert.

“Everything that ever happened to me that was important happened in the desert.”  – Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient

* * *

Land Vernon AZ

http://www.landsofarizona.com/arizona/land-for-sale/50-acres-in-Apache-County-Arizona/id/1073650

* * *

 

“He’d always had a quickening of the heart when he crossed into Arizona and beheld the cactus country. This was as the desert should be, this was the desert of the picture books, with the land unrolled to the farthest distant horizon hills, with saguaro standing sentinel in their strange chessboard pattern, towering supinely above the fans of ocotillo and brushy mesquite.”  – Dorothy B. Hughes

* * *

near Pinetop AZ

http://www.city-data.com/picfilesv/picv27054.php

* * *

“The fire. The odor of burning juniper is the sweetest fragrance on the face of the earth, in my honest judgment; I doubt if all the smoking censers of Dante’s paradise could equal it. One breath of juniper smoke, like the perfume of sagebrush after rain, evokes in magical catalysis, like certain music, the space and light and clarity and piercing strangeness of the American West. Long may it burn.”  – Edward Abbey

* * *

 

Summer monsoon.

“…with you, I find peace from pain – You are gentle and healing like the landscape—like rain…” – John Geddes

* * *

Troy Peak Nevada

http://peakery.com/troy-peak/

* * *

“And in this moment, like a swift intake of breath, the rain came.” – Truman Capote

* * *

Sonoma Peak NV

http://www.summitpost.org/sonoma-peak-nv/756883

* * *

“Just as teardrops, when they are large and round and compassionate, can leave a long strand washed clean of discord, the summer rain as it washes away the motionless dust can bring to a person’s soul something like endless breathing.” – Muriel Barbery

* * *

Current Mountain

http://muench.photoshelter.com/image/I0000FfzNDrbhFQs

* * *

“I know your eyes in the morning sun
I feel you touch me in the pouring rain
And the moment that you wander far from me
I wanna feel you in my arms again”  – Bee Gees

* * *

please.

“When we feel weak, we drop our heads on the shoulders of others. Don’t get mad when someone does that. Be honored. For that person trusted you enough to, even if subtly, ask you for help.” – Lori Goodwin

* * *

Near Cortez, CO

http://www.city-data.com/forum/colorado/1231841-colorado-desert-lands-high-desert-terrain.html

* * *

“It’s incredibly touching when someone who seems so hopeless finds a few inches of light to stand in and makes everything work as well as possible. All of us lurch and fall, sit in the dirt, are helped to our feet, keep moving, feel like idiots, lose our balance, gain it, help others get back on their feet, and keep going.” – Ann Lamott

* * *

Near Cortez

http://www.bambooandmore.info/2012/08/southwest-trip-day-12-window-rock-az-to.html

* * *

“A fine glass vase goes from treasure to trash, the moment it is broken. Fortunately, something else happens to you and me. Pick up your pieces. Then, help me gather mine.” – Vera Nazarian

* * *

near-cortez-co

http://southwestdesertlover.wordpress.com/2012/07/19/respect/

* * *

 

Solitude.

“The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.” – Michel de Montaigne

 

* * *

Split Level Ruin Grand Gulch

http://www.bogley.com/forum/showthread.php?47008-Grand-Gulch-Death-March

* * *

“Reading well is one of the great pleasures that solitude can afford you.” – Harold Bloom

* * *

Grand Gulch Petroglyphs

http://www.mountainphotography.com/photo/anasazi-petroglyphs/

* * *

“Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

* * *

Grand Gulch rock art

http://www.spiriteaglehome.com/GrandGulch08apix.html

* * *

“In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion.” – Albert Camus

* * *

Big Man Pictographs

http://www.utahtrails.com/Backcountry%20pages/BigMan.html

* * *

“From that time on, the world was hers for the reading. She would never be lonely again, never miss the lack of intimate friends. Books became her friends and there was one for every mood. There was poetry for quiet companionship. There was adventure when she tired of quiet hours. There would be love stories when she came into adolescence and when she wanted to feel a closeness to someone she could read a biography. On that day when she first knew she could read, she made a vow to read one book a day as long as she lived.” – Betty Smith

* * *

 

 

independence.

“In yourself right now is all the place you’ve got.” – Flannery O’Connor

 

* * *

Dubois Mountain NV

http://www.streamofimages.com/images.asp?TID=75&index=57

* * *

“I’d rather die my way than live yours.” – Lauren Oliver

* * *

Dubois Mountain WY

http://bertmiltonrealty.com/dubois-wyoming-a-beautiful-place-video/incredible-mountain-views-dubois/

* * *

“There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me.” – Jane Austen

* * *

* *

Four Tops, “I’ve Got a Feeling”

 

* * *

“I have not lived as a woman. I have lived as a man. I’ve just done what I damn well wanted to, and I’ve made enough money to support myself, and ain’t afraid of being alone.” – Katherine Hepburn

* * *

* * *

Four Tops, “Standing in the Shadows of Love”, 1967

* * *

* * *

“Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong..” – Winston Churchill

* * *

 

End.

Aerial of Grand Canyon

http://www.incredipedia.info/2009_12_01_archive.html

* * *

“I don’t like to think about my mother.  I have been beguiled by her charm, manipulated and lied to, disparaged and discounted more times than I care to enumerate.  The immediate flash of anger that occurs when she first enters my thoughts is quickly replaced by pain, a pain that gapes like a fathomless black hole.” – Patricia C McCairen, “Canyon Solitude:  A Woman’s Solo River Journey Through Grand Canyon”.

* * *

Inside GC Wayne Ranney

http://earthly-musings.blogspot.com/2011/09/my-10-day-rafting-trip-through-grand.html

* * *

“……Killing myself while waiting and hoping for her unattainable love and approval, all the time believing she had my best interest at heart, when nothing was further from the truth……If your mother doesn’t love you, then it’s difficult to believe anyone can love you.  That premise follows you into adulthood, influencing your choices from jobs to lovers.  When families wrap so-called love in lies, mixed messages and rigid controls, genuine caring is an alien concept.” – Patricia C McCairen, “Canyon Solitude:  A Woman’s Solo River Journey Through Grand Canyon”.

* * *

Inside Grand Canyon; Stantons Cave

http://www.philipcoppens.com/egyptiancanyon.html

* * *

“Love still frightens me and dreams present me with agonizing truths, but little by little this river and canyon have allowed me to claim my life as my own, to begin moving past my father’s indifference and my mother’s jealousy and hate.  Understanding my relationship to it all is the only path to true freedom.” – Patricia C McCairen, “Canyon Solitude:  A Woman’s Solo River Journey Through Grand Canyon”.

** *

Laughter.

“The more you expect from life, the more your expectations will be fulfilled. By laughing, you do not use up your laughter, but increase your store of it. The more you love, the more you will be loved. The more you give, the more you will receive. Life proves that truth every hour, every day. And life continues to surprise.” – Dean Koontz

* * *

Comb Ridge

http://southwestdesertlover.wordpress.com/tag/comb-ridge-utah/

* * *

“Anything with the power to make you laugh over thirty years later isn’t a waste of time. I think something like that is very close to immortality.” ― Stephen King, “Hearts in Atlantis”.

 

* * *