Day 4 Monday January 18 Layover day at Camp-Pit-Toilet

Rain. Clouds hang low over the canyon walls and the river rushes on. Rain. Wet. Damp. Nothing dries. I send a prayer that tomorrow there is no rain. Please, please Mother Earth, please shed some light on your children. Rest day today. Polenta for breakfast, hummus and bagels for lunch with almonds… I’m hungry for dinner and tired of rain.

So much clutters my thoughts. This is me, yes even the rain. It is cleansing and wet. Rain. I am thankful for this mid – keeping our shit dry. I am thankful for the company, for we are all in this together. I am thankful for no more snow. Embrace the rain little sun baby, and sing praises to The Mother for this blessing of water in the desert. Do not despair, for this too shall pass.

That life of glamour, and glitter, wealth, fame and fortune. Being here, in this Grand Canyon, with these beautiful people feeds my soul. But what about the starving children in Africa, India, China, even here in the US? What IS IT for them? Am I just privelaged that I should lead such a life? Is Nature able to heal a broken home, a cancerous society, an unborn child, a malnourished family? Am I such an idealist that I get a chance to see such a beautiful place? What about the children in the inner-city? What about the patients in the hospital? How can Nature heal them?

As I curl up in my sleeping bag, resisting the urge to pee and avoiding the rain outside, I hide in my head – No, I express only here, on paper, what struggles arise for me. My hand is cramping and a plane hums overhead – what will I do to make great changes, to DO great things?

Later that afternoon… 

I like the feeling of carrying a pack on my back – it makes me feel like I can do anything. It makes me feel expansive! It makes me proud to be in this body, with these legs and feet, that will again, tomorrow, have to walk along the river bank, in search of the next exquisite site to set down roots and grow overnight into a bud, a bush, a flower, a tendril of dew drenched thorns. I am one, I am all, I am the rain, wet and supple, I am the rock, hard and solid, I am the sand, soft and giving, I am the trees drinking in the lushness of it all. Thank you feet, and legs and back and shoulders and neck, for carrying me safely to this oasis of soul-food.