People often ask: "How was your weekend getaway," or "Did you have a nice vacation?" In reality, I don't view weekend wilderness trips - or the annual two-week summer camping trip - as any sort of "getaway." Rather, they involve a RETURN TO REALITY, the one that is rooted in a Source who transcends the human drama we usually associate with our lives in town. In truth, I see these trips as a part of my work, not only because I spend a lot of time working on my photography (which invariably involves arising before dawn so I can catch the sunrise), but because my life-work means being A CONTEMPLATIVE - an earthy contemplative - or, as I'm fond of calling it, "a monk in the world." My hike this weekend in Zion Canyon's "Wall Street" - an extended narrows section on the Virgin River that measures only 20 to 30 feet wide - illustrates well this fact. The contemplative life, I would claim, is just as demanding - and perhaps MORE demanding - when compared with the job of a Wall Street stock trader!
As a practicing contemplative, I realize that my work is continually to seek UNION with the Divine Presence who indwells all things. Contrary to what people often think, this search for union is not easy; it involves a lot of hard work. However, it is an INNER work, one that has little to show in the realm of the external world that is so valued by society, a work which is therefore denigrated by our product-oriented, frenetic, life-is-money culture. This unflagging search for union involves the constant practice of meditative disciplines, all of which aim at dismantling the solidity of the ego-self, thus allowing the practitioner to become transparent to the spiritual Light emanating from within all things. Since contemplation involves living for the Divine Presence instead of for self; it remains largely unrecognized by a society hell-bent on promoting its own superficial image of itself - one that involves little recognition of a Larger Reality and which therefore attempts to replace the Cosmic with the merely individual. In truth, the contemplative life involves the difficult work of letting go of all fear, anger, superficial desire, distraction, media-hype, and emotional drama in order to allow the Divine to know Its own goodness and beauty within the human heart. Thus, as the saying goes, "This is NO picnic!"
Photos: (Top and Middle) The Wall Street section of the Narrows of the Virgin River; (Bottom) Joanne hiking in Echo Canyon. All three photos were taken in Zion National Park, UT on August 30 and 31, 2014
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