Staying in the Moment

I'm writing this while sitting at a long, gorgeous chocolately brown dining table in York, Maine, watching snow fall on the field and trees outside. There are 18 people here, including three children and two teenagers. There are five dogs about at any given time. Eight of us are at the table right now. The conversation is lively and loud. At this moment inflatable snow sleds are being filled with air and we are gearing ourselves up for fresh powder sledding.

One of the little girls -- the youngest, affectionately known as Maddy -- dropped something breakable on the floor, which did not break. She's wearing her Christmas gifts of glittery pink princess shoes and hot pink socks decorated with figures of black moose. I can tell she's going to be a fasion diva when she grows up!

Probably time for me to put on a heavier pair of pants, since I plan to participate in the sledding! I'll take my camera out and share photos later. Assuming, that is, I remembered to pack the USB download cable. Eureka! I did! Cool.

Well, I'm going to sign off for now and blog at you again later. I'm running my laptop off the battery, which is nearly done. I could plug it in and keep going, but sledding beckons! Here I go! Wheeeeeee!

Take care, and Happy Holidays. May blessedness follow wheresoever you go.

My Trip: Highlights and Lowlights

Today is my last day in Tempe, visiting with my friend. Tomorrow I head home to Oakland, where I'm looking forward to seeing my sweetheart again, to seeing my friends, my kitties, and just to being on familiar ground. Oh, and resting. I'll be doing a lot of that!

I wanted to do a penultimate blog entry about the high and low points of my trip. It's been so amazing and delicious that I'm even going to do a section on the highlights of the lowlights! Let me begin with the good stuff:

Southwest Retreat Highlights

1) Visiting with my friend in Tempe. What a wonderful way this has been to bookend my trip! Thank you so much, sweetie. Love you lots! Some Even Higher Lights of this highlight: a) Conscious Dance at East West Exchange! If you're ever in the Tempe area, and you enjoy dancing, you need to go. b) dinner at The Blue Nile! Ethiopean food, with a few interesting twists. Delicious! c) Sunday music jam at East West Exchange! I sang Song of the Warrior Woman for this group of uber-talented musicians (which definitely includes my friend!), and I made enough of an impression for one gentleman to forward my friend a couple of poems for me. A gift of moving poems for a poet. What a sweet and fitting highlight! Oh, and one of the songs we all sang together was Yoda by Weird Al! That's a highlight within a highlight for this die-hard Weird Al fan!

By the way, my friend has a CD out on cdbaby, which I encourage you to check out: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/eireencullen. She told me yesterday she recently sold a CD to someone in New South Wales; now she's an international phenomenon!

2) Sedona. I just love the place! What more can I say, except that I most definitely want to go again! Oh, and a few Even Higher Lights of this highlight: a) the food at ChocolaTree (yum! Live Spice Pie! See photo.) b) The sweat lodge experience (thanks, Rahelio!) c) The incredible beauty everywhere I turned, and d) having my friend from Tempe visit me for a day! Wheeee!

3) Exploring. I did a lot of what I call Shamanic Driving on my trip, which means I drove around different areas and stopped wherever I felt called to stop. I found some delightful places I never would have seen otherwise, among them The Arizona Meteor Crater National Monument! Fun stuff (see photo).

4) The Grand Canyon. WOW! I mean, just, like, WOW. What an incredible experience. Left me breathless and speechless. The photo at the top of my blog says it all. I was in total bliss!

5) Old Town Albuquerque. I felt I found the soul of Albuquerque walking through the public art and abode-adorned streets of Old Town (see photos). Even Higher Lights of this highlight: a) Ghost Tour! I love these, and have been on several over the years. The Albuquerque ghost tour ranks among the best I've taken, and I highly recommend it! b) History Tour! New Mexico has a rich and fascinating history. Albuquerque celebrated its tricentennial in 2006, having been founded in 1706.
That's going to be it for this round of Highlights and Lowlights. I just realized that if I keep on, this will end up being the longest blog post in the history of blog posts!

I'll continue with the highlights in my next post, and probably do the lowlights in the post after that. As always, thanks so much for reading, and take care.

May your days be filled with what you love most.

Up with the Sun in the Land of Enchantment

I'm up way earlier today than usual. At the left is a photo of sunrise over downtown Albuquerque. Today I'm driving to Taos to have a look at sacred mountains and get a feeling for one more place in New Mexico.

So far I have mixed feelings about my experience here. I adore Old Town Albuquerque. To me, it feels as though this city's soul resides there. The tours I took were magical, the guides knowledgeable and genuine. Yet even here in a city of nearly one million residents, food is a huge challenge for me. Luckily there are a few Asian restaurants, as well at two Whole Foods grocery stores, or I would feel more hard pressed than I currently do to find healthy food. Well, food that fits with my diet and food sensitivities, that is.

New Mexican cuisine is based heavily on Old Mexican, so I find a lot of beef, pork, cheese, bread, and beans on standard menus. I can't eat the first two, am better off avoiding the third, am allergic to the fourth and, while I can eat the fifth, I find them as challenging (and musical) to digest as most people.

I'm happy to say I've had a great time in general, though, getting to know Albuquerque's history and seeking New Mexico's soul. If the food could be less challenging, perhaps I would love it here without reservation.

Stay tuned for more tomorrow, which will be my final day in the Land of Enchantment and Challenging Food. Take care, and thanks for reading.

Old Town Ghosts

I decided to go on the Old Town Albuquerque ghost tour last night, even though my feet hurt. I grabbed my sensible shoes and drove over to 303 Romero Street. And I'm so happy I did!

The ghost tour here ranks among the best I've ever taken, replete with historical tidbits and hair-curling (or straightening) stories about mayhem, murder, and supernatural happenings! If you're ever in Albuquerque, make time for it. I liked it so much, I'm going back on Friday to take one of their historical tours and learn more about Old Town. Then I'm having lunch at Church Street cafe, located in the most haunted building in Albuquerque!

One of the coolest things about the ghost tour was encouragement to bring a camera. I'm including here two photos, taken within seconds of each other, for your entertainment. I believe in ghosts, and believe I may have captured something of interest here.

I magnified the small while circles in the second picture, and the bottom circle is probably a magnified dust particle. The top one, however, stayed solid white through each stage of magnification. Does that mean anything? Maybe. Maybe not.

If it is evidence of something beyond my ken, I will admit it's a bit flimsy. I am, however, thrilled beyond all thrilledness, for no other reason than that I cannot quickly and easily explain away the first circle. I've taken many, many digital photos and seen more than my share of magnified dust particles and water molecules. I know the top circle is something else, and I'm not sure what. I do know it's something that has never appeared in any photo I've yet taken. And I find that fact quite satisfying.

Thanks for reading, and may your day contain evidence of things known yet unseen!

Blue Hotels and Moonlight Swims

I've landed in Albuquerque, and I'm writing this from my room at The Hotel Blue. And what a fabulous hotel it is! I could live here all week, never leaving its comforts behind. Except to use the pool, of course. Oh, and probably to eat. Not sure my food supplies will last a whole week.

The pool is open until 10 pm, so last night I went for a moonlight swim. Today I plan to explore Old Town, which I believe is quite close to the hotel. I'm sure I'll have more photos for tomorrow's blog.

The drive here from the Grand Canyon took just over five hours, and I arrived later than I thought I would -- mostly because New Mexicans are on MST (Mountain Standard Time), which is one hour later than Arizona in Summer, or California all year around.

One of the things I'm anticipating with greatest glee is the Old Town Ghost Tours! On Friday they have an exclusive full moon tour starting at 10 pm. I am SO signing up for that! My Inner little one, whom I call Little Selene, is jumping up and down at the prospect. We love to seek evidence of what lies beyond the veil!

Speaking of things magical and mysterious, I had a most shamanic drive to this place. When I left my room yesterday morning at the Grand Canyon Inn, I thought I had gathered everything. A few moments after I returned my key card to the front desk, however, one of the cleaning women ran toward me waving my digital camera. I nearly fell to my knees in gratitude!

I thanked them profusely, and also raised my voice in praise to whatever powers be. I felt profoundly blessed, for I have also felt divinely protected all throughout my trip. My camera allows me to record the beauty of this trip. Without my magical eye, I would have felt bereft in the extreme.

I stopped for gas while still in Arizona, and as I pulled off the road I wondered if I would catch a glimpse of famous Route 66, and whether or not I would get any kicks. I immediately cruised past a gas station, yet as I glanced at the price per gallon, a sage inner voice advised that I could do much better farther down the road.

I drove several blocks, beginning to wonder if I had made the right choice since I was running low on fuel. Then, down a side street, I glimpsed a red and white structure that resembled a gas station. I turned down the next street and there it was -- gas for $0.26 less per gallon! The price, in fact, was $2.66 for unleaded without the frills.

After I paid, pumped, then headed back to the main highway, I looked at the road signs and saw I was driving down Route 66, and I laughed aloud: I had paid $2.66 for gas, and indeed felt like I had gotten some kicks!

I don't how I knew there was another, cheaper gas station down the road in the town of Winslow, Arizona -- a place I've never been, and may never see again. Yet I did, and I trusted that knowing. For me, that is the definition of magic.

Well, I'm off soon with my magic eye and deep inner knowing, to see what we might discover together. As always, thanks for reading, and may you get in touch with what you never knew you know! Take care.

The Canyon: Ain't it Grand?

I left Sedona this morning with tears in my eyes, wishing I could stay longer. Yet the farther I drove down 89A toward 17, the more excited I got about seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time. And oh, it exceeded my expectations! Here are a couple of my favorite photos from today.

You can see my very favorite as my main blog picture, a photo of me that a passing park visitor was kind enough to take. I love it so much, I've also made it into my Facebook profile photo!

I'm writing this post from the lobby of the Grand Canyon Inn, which closes around 10 pm. Got to make this short as a result.

Well, now I'm writing from a bench outside the lobby, in view of the Flintstone Campground across the street and a very dark Arizona night sky beyond. Not quite 10, but they decided to close a little early. At least I can still get a connection out here!

Okay, blogspot is seriously pissing me off right now. It won't let me upload anymore photos for this post, and it's inserted a tiny "insert image" icon at the end of the first paragraph. I am majorly annoyed. I figured out how to get rid of the icon. Let's see if it will allow me to add another photo now.

Nope. Dang it. Well, I guess you all will need to content yourselves with the two I was able to add. I'll get more up soon.

Kind of quiet and creepy sitting here all alone near Highway 64 in the dark. A police car just zoomed past with its lights flashing, but no siren. Weird. Maybe the officer is just trying to get home faster.

Anyway, time for me to get back to my room. Believe it or not, there's a chill in the air. And I'm wearing shorts.

Thanks for reading, and have a grand week!

Final Day in Sedona

This will be a sweet and swift entry, since the coffee shop closes in fifteen minutes! I meant to write my entry earlier, and got sidetracked looking up weather and ghost tour information for Albuquerque, which is where I'll land on Tuesday.

Tomorrow morning I'm off to the Grand Canyon! Just now, however, I'm feeling sad about leaving Sedona. I truly love it here, and would stay longer if the travel bug wasn't biting me good and hard. And it is.

My friend from Tempe drove up yesterday, and we spent a very fun 24 hours together. The highlight of her visit -- at least for me -- was our trip this morning to Slide Rock State Park for swimming in ice-cold (and I am NOT exaggerating) mountain stream water. I'll download the photos soon, probably on Tuesday when I get to Albuquerque.

I also found a great place for an aura photo, which came with 25 pages of interpretation, at a place right around the corner from Baby Quail Inn. Oh! And last night my friend and I actually saw quails running across Willow Way! One more bit of magic, which Sedona has in abundance.

Tonight I've got to pack up my car so I can swiftly skedaddle tomorrow. And speaking of that, the minutes are counting down at the coffee shop. Time for me to scoot.

Thanks for reading, and may you find more magic in your life than you ever believe possible!