Organ Mountain Zen



Friday, February 11, 2011

Touch the Earth

With palms together,


Good Morning Everyone,

A few years ago I worked with a Road Chief in Gallup, NM. He was an amazing man and we worked well together. He introduced me to many Navajo traditions, opened my heart to the People, and taught me a lot about myself. We built a sweat lodge together in Window Rock from tress he cut down on Mt. Taylor, one of the sacred mountains of the People. In the process he gave me a Navajo name, “Two Fires” which has always been a symbols, I fear, of my life.



Being in touch with the Earth and its natural cycles is incredibly important. Civilization seems to be defined by the amount of distraction and the degree of separation we place between us and the natural world.



I’ve noticed since leaving my work with Navajo to eventually living in the mountains, to leaving the mountains to live in Las Cruces, I have been gradually losing my connection with the natural world and its rhythms. What I have not lost is my sense of this connection’s importance.



Each morning when I step out into the world, I deliberately open myself the its face. Cold, wet, dry or hot, there it is. I notice the change in the grasses in the desert as we hike or jog through trails. Each evening I try to get a glimpse of the sky, feel the air as it changes when the sun sets and we are presented with the awesome gift of our Southwestern sunsets.



Waking up is nothing more than opening ourselves to each and every sense organ and allowing it to have its place in our heart/mind. Unadulterated, pure, present. My advice? Take a breath and go in its direction.



Be well.

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