'The Wave'

We have been on the road again exploring Parks in the States. One of the highlights has been our hike to 'The Wave'- the actual name.

 It is located in Southern Utah.  Only 20 people a day can make the trek to 'The Wave' and they are chosen by lottery- 10 via online application and 10 @ the Warden Office the day before.  'The Wave' is ribbons of limestone that create these surreal land formations. 

The whole experience is quite the adventure from waiting in the office the morning before with many others to see if we'd be chosen, the excitment of being chosen, to hiking an unmarked trail using a sheet of pictures as reference points to The Wave,  then the awe of stepping into 'The Wave'.

That is my husband Ron in the picture. 

Just had to share this and encourage others to check it out.

Miss you guys.  How's it hanging out there?

Maggie

One Busy Bee

I'm liking his polleny bum

and

graceful leg extension

visit: Lisa for other Macro Monday Shots

http://lisaschaos.com/

Red is Best

                                           Red is Best

I am participating in Jenny's:  Alphabe-Thursday's Rainbow Summer- Red Theme

Maybe it's because I read the book

Red is Best

to my little girl

that

she grew up

loving

Red

so when I spotted these Red Rain Boots

@ The Gap

there was no doubt

that for her

it would be love @ first sight

and

first jump

Happy Birthday Christina

A Day of Play - kayaking Banff to Canmore

Banff to Canmore Paddle July/ 2010

 Started @ Bow Falls in Banff, Alberta

Distance of trip:  22 km

There were 6 solo boats and two doubles

This part of the Bow River is class II- some wavey sections

We feel so blessed to have three Rivers to paddle near to us

Bow River, Elbow River & Kananaskis River

Me taking a rest in an Eddy- slow moving water that moves in the opposite

direction that the river is running

I'm paddling an 11' Dagger kayak that

is very comfortable/stable and very durable

The 10 of us take a lunch break

It was a cloudy, threatening to rain kinda day but

not a drop was dropped

and the clouds made it such a perfect temperature

Hubby sitting in Eddy against dunes

Wish I would have got a picture of the hodoos behind him
the hodoos are a sandstone rock formation caused by erosion
that look like sand spires

The cherry on the cake was first the sound of the train's whistle then

the sight of the red engine against the backdrop of the mountains.

It makes for such a nostalgic moment

A penny for your thoughts

In the back of my mind

sits

a well used, long treasured thought

which is:

'You aren't really hearing me.'

yet

when I ask: 'why do I want you to hear me?'

there lies a wanting to be understood

and

when I ask: 'why do I want you to understand me?'

there is a need for acceptance

and

 beneath this need for acceptance?

sits

a yearning for the freedom to stop trying to be enough

and

yet once again as I go deeper

 there is

an innermost desire

 for

Inner Peace.

The thought

'You aren't really hearing me.'

now is really my wake up call

to make a choice

to keep this thought

or

to choose

Inner Peace

the true

asking

This was a hard concept for me to express because it exposes one of the core beliefs that I carry that keeps me stuck as the victim. 

Also there is embarrassment because of all the times I have expressed this thought 'You aren't really hearing me' to the people I hold most dear  in a way that has come out as attack or defense. 

The good news is that this belief  does catch me and takes for for a ride once in awhile but not as often and/or for as long as it used to.  The extra bonus is that when I let go of my neediness to be heard people (mostly my hubby) are more keen to hear me. 

I wonder what thoughts replay themselves in the back of your mind and how you see them. 

What sense is this?

What sense is this

that a simple mask

has the power in an instance

to open a door to safety, freedom and joy,

to soar, wings fully outstretched

heart open

in this moment

no longer a prisoner

to my limited beliefs

of who I am?

(Picture taken by my friend Deb Sudul)

I’d like to pre-warn you that this is me thinking this through on the page so you will have to bare with the confusion as it spills out willy nilly.

It was so striking the immediate feeling of freedom putting  the mask on that I knew it deserved further contemplation.  It was as if my ego judgments of myself and others no longer existed. It made me reflect on my use of the mask and people who use vices such as drink, drugs, overeating to get the mind chatter to stop.

Then I thought of Delyn from http://ahazymoon.blogspot.com/ who in her post today talks about Wabi Sabi which is the Japanese Art of finding the beauty in the ordinary.  (see youtube video below)

With photography, that is if I give myself lots of time, I will slip into a zone that I would describe as Wabi Sabi where there is a definite shift in my awareness.  The reason I bring this up is that when I put the mask on I immediately went to an altered state, I was the beauty.  So, I am figuring this out as these words come. 

How do I have Wabi Sabi for myself without a ‘mask’?  How do I accept the natural cycle of growth and transience within myself.  I wonder if it is even about going after seeing it within myself or is it about seeing it around me and that translates to seeing it within? So now another question arises – if photography sends me to Wabi Sabi then why don’t I do it more?  It is like exercise-it’s uncomfortable to start.

It isn’t clear yet but there are rumblings going on within that I trust will lead to more sense of this.

Happy to hear your reflections.