Our Continuing Spiritual Journey

We've been a little out of touch with you all. We escaped for over a week and headed to the southern part of our state and the northern part of our neighboring state, New Mexico, for a road trip to camp in the Colorado Plateau region. We explored the significant sites of the Ancestral Puebloans at Mesa Verde, Aztec and Chaco Canyon. We spent days observing the archaeological and Native American versions of the life and times of these people from 600 AD to 1300 AD. We learned a lot about the continuing thread connecting cultures from our past to present day. It gave us something to think about as we look ahead. What kind of mark do we want to leave?

The road was long, pensive, peaceful (except when it was time to break into song), and sometimes desolate. Always there were our imaginations, active and packed with daydreams of hundreds-of-years-old campfires under that same blanket of desert stars (we saw Saturn's rings through a telescope at Chaco Canyon!).  We developed a new appreciation for the landscape that looks to go on forever, seemingly lifeless, dusty and sparse, but packed with wildflowers and countless species coming out of their winter spells and into the summer sun (we rode our bikes alongside two trotting mule deer who were very curious about our being in their desert meadows).

There are a number of stories from our trip that would warrant a post all on their own. Take for example, our feat of driving while hanging on to our bike rack through the sunroof because it had broken, dangling our bikes over the side of our car. Only gravity (and our brute strength) was keeping it and our bikes attached to the roof as we snaked through the gusty desert.

Only 60 miles to the next REI to get a new bike rack,
hold on tight!

Or, the ecstasy of flavors we encountered eating our way through Santa Fe for a day. Um, can we say sea salt caramel sauce on some local beef and a flight of sherry for dessert? We could also go on and on about the farm country nestled between Colorado's snow-capped peaks that led us through the agricultural valleys into the natural wonder of Great Sand Dunes National Park.

Tiny dots in the dead center of this picture are people
climbing the tallest dune, 750 feet!

However, we agreed that one day truly captured the heart of what we wanted to share with you, the essence of our spiritual journey through these wonderful landscapes of eons past. As we reentered southern Colorado, we were introduced to the scenery winding into Pagosa Springs. We intended to soak for a while in the natural hot springs located in the heart of town. Some suspect that hundreds of years ago members of different Native American tribes would visit the springs from miles around, meet and put aside their differences while basking in the healing warm waters.

We spent 11 (eleven!) hours soaking in water ranging from 95 to 105 degrees Fahrenheit. We had access to 18 pools and people from all over were popping in and out of the tiny tubs to try out each one. It was a day of introductions, connections and wisdom exchanged. We shared time with people as far away as Germany and as local as a Southern Ute woman from the next town over. Maybe it was just that we were soaking in the heat, but the stories exchanged touched our hearts and opened up our souls to the experiences of those around us and to their connection to our own journey.

One woman in particular is now referred to as another sage in our story towards growing our family; we'll call her Chama. She asked "You have a daughter, right?" We responded that we didn't, but that we were hoping to adopt a baby sometime soon to grow our family. She shared a conversation that she had just had with her daughter, who was expressing that she might not want to have children as she grows older. Chama told her daughter that there were "many ways to parent children" - or in a clearer context, that the prescripted parent/child roles are not the only way to share love, knowledge and companionship with children.

This struck both of us as more meaningful than the overused message that "It Takes a Village to Raise a Child." It was a message of openness, compassion, understanding and interconnectedness. It also allowed a peaceful acceptance that even if our current plans don't come to be, we have many important ways to contribute to the lives of the children around us.

One of the park rangers we met taught us that there are roughly 150 billion stars in each of 150 billion different galaxies. With a fuzzy awareness of the magnitude of this statement, our sense of our own personal significance shrank considerably. We think we understand how small we all are in the grand scheme of things. The most important aspect of this path we're on is being kind to each other, including "parenting" all of the children in our lives in the most appropriate way we know how, with love and acceptance. In the big picture, we don't have time here to worry about much of anything else. It was a freeing perspective.

We decided that the people we met in the hot springs were connecting and exchanging messages of kindness, as had been done there for hundreds of years in the past. Our job was to carry the message forward and make sure that the way we live our lives here for this brief period reflects the impact that this shared experience had on us. I wish you some big picture thinking tonight. Try to zoom out a few billion light years and decide if your current troubles should continue to worry you. Our time here is brief, and should be spent smiling.