I was recently accused of "worshiping" the Canyon, an accusation that made me quite sad.  It was made by someone who never has met me, never has asked me a single question about my personal faith or beliefs, and who really doesn't know anything about me.  It saddens me that so many people are so insecure about their own beliefs that they need to criticize the thoughts and beliefs of others--no matter how invalid or unjustifiable those accusations may be.  I won't spend any time trying to prove that person wrong, but I think these words by George Washington Carver express my thoughts clearly enough:

I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station,
through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will but listen.

George Washington Carver

"If we will but listen."  That's my goal here.  To listen, to experience, to feel, to learn, in a place where all of nature has been exposed in ways that simply aren't to be found anywhere else.

The Canyon provides a beautiful reminder of just how fleeting our lives on this planet are.  The top layer--the youngest layer--is some 270 million years old, and the layers continue to get older as one descends further.  When we consider our 60-80 years here (if we're lucky), it becomes very obvious that we should make the most of the very little time that we have to live and learn and feel and play.

Yesterday we had our first heavy snowfall, and it was an amazing experience to stand at the rim and see the clouds reaching down into the Canyon, to see the snow falling, to see both the clouds and snow obscuring huge portions of the Canyon while the sun was shining just a couple of miles away.  The snowfall adds an incredible bit of magic to the experience of being here, as it seems to contradict the desert-like qualities that are evident almost everywhere.  This morning we went out to Yavapai Point to watch the sunrise, and while we didn't get much color, we witnessed a beautiful dramatic scene that unfolded slowly before us (as our toes and fingers gradually froze!).  There's a small picture at the bottom of the page of this morning's sunrise.

Our Christmas will be much like our Thanksgiving--both Terry and I will be working, though this time we'll have very similar schedules.  We'll at least be able to have dinner together, and we'll probably celebrate Christmas on the 26th.  We could do it on the 24th, but since that's Terry's birthday I'd rather focus on that.  Neither of us mind working, for when we look at our schedules we see that other people are able to be at home because we're working.  It's a small thing, but a nice thing to give others the chance to celebrate at home with their families.

Our jobs have become very interesting because of the new computer system (Opera for resorts) that we're using.  We've just gone through a couple of weeks of training and going active (I've had one day off in the last three weeks), and it's fascinating to watch the new system and to try to get used to it.  Unfortunately, the training for the system has been sadly lacking, and several of the "trainers" have been unable to train us because they have absolutely no idea of what our needs are.  The transition has been far from smooth, and there's a lot of frustration all the way around because of the lack of professionalism and knowledge of the trainers.  I'm really glad that I'm learning about the dynamics of such a process, as I'm learning a lot about interdependence and the results of not learning about the needs of others before trying to implement systems or structures.

Nature is another important aspect of nourishing the soul.  After a hike
in the mountains where we live, for instance, I feel a remarkable sense
of gratitude and awe.  My mind quiets down and allows me to see
more clearly the beauty of creation.  And through that gratitude,
the beauty of the universe is reflected back to the creator.

Joan Borysenko

Both Terry and I are having a hard time believing that it's already 2007.  Christmas has come and gone, and an entire new year is stretching out before us.  We've been here at the Canyon for a quarter of a year already, and we're still enjoying ourselves immensely.  We've been discussing the possibility of moving on from here to another national park in a while, once we decide that moving on is the right thing to do.  There isn't much reason to hurry back to New England, as there isn't a great deal of opportunity for finding fulfilling work back there.

Our Christmas and both of our birthdays were very simple, very laid-back.  Actually, we both worked on Christmas Day, so we celebrated Christmas on the 26th with a half a turkey (that's all that would fit in our oven) and stuffing and such.  We had a couple of people over who otherwise wouldn't have had a home-cooked holiday meal, and we did our best to relax and enjoy the holiday.  The holiday was a great symbol of just how simple our lives have become, something that we're appreciating more and more every day.  We had just a few gifts, and that was fine with us.  We spent a quiet, peaceful day in an absolutely beautiful setting, without the rush and the stress and the preoccupations of Christmases past.

Our New Year's Eve and Day were very similar, except for the fact that I worked late on New Year's Eve.  On Monday morning we treated ourselves to a great breakfast at El Tovar and then we hiked down the Kaibab trail to Skeleton Point.  It was a beautiful, sunny morning, about 35 degrees at the start and 45 when we finished.  The highlight of the day was when a California condor soared by overhead, not 20 feet above us, while we were descending.  It was a magnificent bird--incredibly large and graceful, and it was an awesome feeling to have it so close to us.

One downside to the experience has been the amount of time we've been working.  Since Thanksgiving, we've had only three days off together.  I went one stretch of 21 days with just two days off, which got to be quite old--but it really was needed at the hotel, so it wasn't something that I resented or anything like that.  Both Terry and I agree that we didn't come here to work all the time, so we're going to have to look at ways to make positive changes in the situation.  Now that the slow season is approaching, it should be easier to spend some time together, but we'll need to be careful in the summer that we don't lose our focus and allow ourselves to be consumed by the work.  We came here to explore the southwest and to learn about the Canyon and geology and all sorts of things, and we don't want to end the experience saying "We didn't get a chance to explore because we were working too much."

We're also still waiting for our house to sell.  That's been quite a financial drain, and it still is.  We put our house on the market just before the downturn in the housing market--we can't do anything about it, of course, but we do hope that it will sell soon.

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Sunrise at Yavapai Point, 12/19/6

The holidays have come and gone, and we're well into winter now.  The temperatures often are down to zero and below at night, and we've lost our water to freezing twice now.  We've had several minor snowstorms which have turned the Canyon into a magical winter wonderland, as well as some beautiful sunny, fairly warm days.  Terry just went back to New Hampshire to visit her family and our daughters for a week, and she's back already.  It's a trip she's been looking forward to for a very long time, and now it's come and gone so quickly. . . .  All in all, time is flying these days, and life is moving on and on.

We're planning a trip down to Phantom Ranch in a few days--we'll spend two nights down there at the bottom of the Canyon.  It's a wonderful opportunity to spend some time actually in the Canyon, rather than just hiking down there and coming right back up.

February 3, 2007

Our trip to Phantom Ranch has come and gone--we've been to the bottom and back up, and it was a beautiful experience.  I had been there several times before on day hikes, but I never had stayed more than a half an hour or so because I had to turn around and come back up top right away.  Terry had never been there, so the whole experience was new for her.