Up North, Arizona style

Weekend trip to Sedona and Flagstaff...a whirlwind trip to see what they're like.

Seriously stunning. I knew it'd be beautiful, but the wide open space, the rock striation, the shapes of the mountains, the valleys and river...amazing. 

And then to Flagstaff. In town felt like Kalamazoo - pine trees, breweries, college kids. Then we drove up toward Humphey's Peak, the tallest mountain in Arizona. The skylift was closed for maintenance (bad luck!) but we wandered around and enjoyed the views anyway. 

 Driving home, we stopped at Montezuma's Castle. Dates back to 1100-1400. Fun stop in the middle of a long stretch of highway.

Sunset in the Southwest

  These past few evenings have provided such spectacular sunsets. The clouds that roll in around dinnertime set the scene for amazing color.

And while the spectacular colors are happening outdoors, here's what my little pookies are up to indoors.

Day with Mom

Apache Trail

The first stop up the road

The view out my window

Look who came along! And look how far down....

Off to the edge of the precipice - there's a huge gulf between the foreground and the background

Isn't it amazing? Looks like a movie set. That's the road along the top of the near mountain - you can see the dust from a car at the left edge

Happy New Year!

"For last year's words belong to last year's language
And next year's words await another voice.
To make an end is to make a beginning."

(T.S. Eliot)

"All very alarming."

"Magdalene" by Da Vinci

C.S. Lewis on Mary Magdalene:

"The allegorical sense of her great action dawned on me the other day. The precious alabaster box which one must break over the Holy Feet is one's heart. Easier said than done. And the contents become perfume only when it is broken. While they are safe inside they are more like sewage. All very alarming."

(Letters to an American Lady)

Small Boat on the Ocean

"At issue here is the question: 'To whom do I belong? To God or to the world?' Many of my daily preoccupations suggest that I belong more to the world than to God. A little criticism makes me angry, and a little rejection makes me depressed. A little praise raises my spirits, and a little success excites me. It takes very little to raise me up or thrust me down.  

Often I am like a small boat on the ocean, completely at the mercy of its waves. All the time and energy I spend in keeping some kind of balance and preventing myself from being tipped over and drowning shows that my life is mostly a struggle for survival: not a holy struggle, but an anxious struggle resulting from the mistaken idea that it is the world that defines me...."

-Henri Nouwen

The Return of the Prodigal Son