Sacred Places

People have been drawn to the desert landscape for millennia for its stark beauty. It is the world laid bare and as we gaze into its distant horizons we ourselves are laid bare. Today I looked into one of my most distant and sacred horizons; I flew above the very places where I met my wife Amy 14 years ago (June of 1996) in the deserts of Arizona.

I was 19 and on a motorcycle trip across the country with my great friend Jason Biggs. We traveled through 22 states and 8,000 miles. As we were driving on this small remote road through the Red Mesa Desert in the northeast corner of Arizona we passed this little white car going in the same direction. It had two people in it and was going a little slower than we were. As we got closer, Jason and I pulled into the other lane to pass them CHIPS style (for those of you that remember the old TV show :). Now, I have always referred to this road as a "car commercial" road because it stretched out 30 miles into the horizon and there was not another car on it. Anyway, as we passed them they sped up and passed us and then slowed down. I thought, "What a bad driver!" so we passed them again. This went on back and forth as we started realizing that there were two cute girls in the car.

Jason rode beside them for a while at 70 mph and chatted with them, then he pulled up to me and said that we should stop at the next town and maybe they would follow us. I said that I had to stop at the next town because I needed gas anyway. Well, the next little town that we pulled into was Tuba City, AZ: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuba_City,_Arizona

The girls pulled in behind us and it was Amy and her friend Sara Lewin. We all stood there at the gas station and chatted for about 45 min before I suggested that we head across the street to the Tuba City Truck Stop Cafe for some lunch. We all went over there and had an incredible conversation. It was so real and so deep with such little effort. Near the end of the meal Jason and I asked them if they wanted to follow us over to the Grand Canyon and camp out with us that evening (they had been camping for the last two weeks in the Navajo Indian Reservation). They thought about it for a minute and then said, "Sure." They followed in their car behind us as we made our way to the southern rim of the Grand Canyon. When we got to the national park we were told that all of the camping sites were full. We all drove into the park and went to this old stone observation tower on the southern rim. We were all there and talked about our options and we decided to get a hotel room at Bright Angel Lodge right on the rim of the canyon.

It was incredible! We all stayed up until 4am talking and singing and meditating. Amy had just returned from almost a year in India where she had studied meditation in the Himalayas. I can promise you that it was the first time that us two Alabama boys had ever meditated! We read from a copy of the Tao Te Ching that Amy had with her which happened to be one of my favorite works of spiritual literature. It was just a very special and cool night with new friends.

The next day the 4 of us did some sightseeing on the motorcycles. After lunch we traded phone numbers and addresses and headed off in different directions; Jason and I headed towards California and Amy and Sara headed back to Sara's home in Scottsdale, AZ. When Jason and I got back to Alabama after the trip Amy and I exchanged some letters and 4 or 5 phone calls. Then I told her that she should come to Alabama to visit because I would really like to spend some more time with her. She ended up coming to Mobile on Sept 7 of 1996. By the end of the first week that she was there we were head over heels in love with each other and she never left!:) We have been together ever since; we never had a date and we have never not lived with each other. It has been 14 amazing years of love and growth and I am as passionate about her today as I have ever been.

What an incredibly lucky person I am and it all started that June day in the desert and canyon that I flew over today; truly a sacred place.

I took pictures of the town of Tuba City and can actually make out the gas station and the truck stop. I saw the stone tower that we climbed that day 14 years ago and I saw and took a picture of Bright Angel Lodge where we stayed that night. Bright angels were certainly surrounding us and still do...

After we passed over this memory filled landscape Jerry and I then set up for the approach into Sedona, AZ. I can say without a doubt that I have never seen a more dramatic and stunning approach than Sedona. The runway is on the top of a mountain that nature has sheared off into a flat top. 1,000 foot cliffs are at both ends of the runway and it looks like you are landing on an aircraft carrier. However, rather than a sea of water surrounding you there are red and gold cliffs and rocky spires shooting up all around you. It is nothing short of magical.

Jerry executed a perfect landing with the stall horn going off as the wheels squeaked on the asphalt. As we touched down and rolled out I looked over at Jerry and he had tears flowing down his smiling cheeks from the shear overwhelming beauty of it all. How wonderful to see this man living his dream. He visualized this trip for himself and now unlike so many others in life we have made choices and have seen it through. The moments that we as individuals can look around us and realize that we are truly immersed in a dream realized are few and far between. These are sacred places within us...

My mom drove up from Phoenix today to have dinner with us! It was so great to see her and spend some time with her. She is driving us up to the airport tomorrow morning and is going to stick around to see us take off!

The three of us all got rooms at this fantastic place that I highly recommend if you ever find yourself in Sedona. The name of the hotel is the Orchards Inn (http://www.orchardsinn.com ). My room is #106 and it is great!

Tomorrow: out over the Pacific ocean and landing on Catalina Island