Pilgrimages have a way of condensing time. Each time I have gone to India on pilgrimage it seems that the intensity of experience makes it seem that it must have been far more time than what the calendar says. After a month on this pilgrimage Carla and I looked at each other and we both said it seems more like a year than a month!
This is not just because it has been difficult or painful, which can also condense time, for we have had so many extraordinary experiences in nature that have been wonderful. Even now we continue our stay at Bryce National Park. We live in a forest of Ponderosa Pine, just steps away we can walk to the canyons edge and be witnesses to one of nature’s great sculptural masterpieces, breathe remarkably pure air at over 8,000 feet, and as of the last couple of days we have deep blue skies above. No, it just seems a very long time ago since we left on this journey.
We have explored the series of “amphitheaters” that make up Bryce Canyon, each one with different characteristics and individuals charms. We can only imagine how crowded it must be in summer months, but now there is a steady trickle of fellow gawkers, many of them northern Europeans of various nationalities. There are hikers, mountain bikers and look, click and dash folks (they race to the view point, look, click some pictures and dash off to the next view as if some invisible timekeeper will award them a prize for being the fastest tourist of the day!).
We tend to move slow, some of that is dictated by this body, but it is also a desire not only to look, but to feel on a deeper, intuitional level. These canyons are not static but in a sense living. Through erosion they are constantly changing, only their life cycle occurs over tens and hundreds of thousands of years. One of the Indian legends says that there were people living here long ago and they became evil. The prankster coyote turned these evil people to stone, and if you look at the Hoodoo formations you can still make out their faces in the rock.
When you listen deeply there is a great quiet and purity. Although we have no schedule it seems we have spent extra time here; it has been good for the healing of this body as well. We will be moving on to other places soon, but other than the cold (there are over 200 days a year that have freezing temperatures and we have been here for a few of them), it has been a wonderful time.
It is always interesting to see the world through what others perceive. Ebenezer and Mary Bryce were homesteaders whose backyard was these magnificent canyons and for whom the park was named. When Ebenezer was asked what he thought about these canyons that eventually became a National Park and where millions of visitors would come to take in the views, he thought about it for some little while, and said, “Well, it’s a helluva place to lose a cow.” Well, Ebenezer, I am sure it was!
Health Note: I continue to be able to do more each day, although it is slower than I would like. I was having a constant burning pain in my stomach, so on the advice of the insurance nurse over the phone we drove a couple of hours to a walk-in clinic. The doctor there prescribed some anti-biotics for a stomach ulcer (it is only the third time I have had antibiotics). It has been a couple of days but I am noticing improvement. The doctor in Moab suspected I might have a stomach ulcer. It was only recently that an Australian researcher announced certain types of ulcers were caused by bacterial infections. He was ignored and scoffed at by the medical establishment until the evidence convinced a reluctant institution. Today I am getting treatment based on his tenacity to go forward in the face of ridicule by “the experts.”
Additional Note: October 24 is the second anniversary of Christine leaving the body. She continues to feel very close to me. We were in India on pilgrimage two years ago when we received word that she had left the body. We had a laminated picture of Christine and took it to every holy place we went and dipped it in the Ganges when at Ma’s ashram. Although the outcome was not her complete physical recovery as we had hoped deep in our hearts, she did have a most glorious leaving of the body and left as a freed soul. The day before her 2nd anniversary I spontaneously bought some lime flavored Tostitos, a product I have never bought before. On the day of her anniversary I took the bag out and opened it and Carla said, “Christine always bought those when she came down, they were her favorite and she couldn’t get them in Canada!” So we ate some Lime Tostitos at Rainbow Point here at Bryce in memory of our sweet Christine.