Crossing Worlds Journeys and Retreats

11/26/2024

Such a glorious painting by Shonto Begay
Looking across the expansive Verde Valley with it red cliffs on the north side, and then higher up and farther away, the 10,000+ foot San Francisco Peaks next to Flagstaff, known as Sacred Peaks.

"Shonto Begay (c) 2024
View from the Mingus
( towards Do’ko’oos liid )"

09/23/2024

Happy day 2 of Fall Equinox turning point.

Day and night will be nearly equal in length as Earth spins side-on to the sun and autumn officially begins in the Northern Hemisphere. The Medicine Wheel makes an easy shift today. The direction is West, the color black, and represents our spiritual self. Now we celebrate the Autumn Season. This is the direction of adulthood. The west symbolizes courage, insight, knowledge and maturity. Bear guards and guides this direction. Autumn is traditionally a time of darkening days. We begin to go within and prepare for this new season

08/30/2024

I relate to Roger Naylor's being called by places in the natural world. For me, I too have always been gifted by these times of communion with the natural world.

Sometimes places call to me. I hear them with my heart. It’s not the general yearning to see certain spots again, like thinking I miss Chiricahua National Monument and want to go back. It is always very specific, often a place I don't know well or that doesn’t leap out as one of my favorites. But I hear their voice. Almost 15 years ago, Skeleton Point helped heal me after we had to say goodbye to a few elderly pets one right after another. I once drove six hours to hike to Chesler Park in the backcountry of Canyonlands National Park. It was that same call that led me to Kanab last week. I was happy to relax in the picturesque town and enjoyed my time immensely. But the reason I went was because a strip of sand along the Colorado River needed me. I visited Lees Ferry in late spring while working on a book and had a wonderful time like always. But I was also very rushed. As soon as I finished the book, I knew I had to go back. No grand adventure was required, no big plan. But all I could think about was returning to find a quiet place and sit beside the Colorado River for as long as I wanted. That became the basis for my entire vacation. I got an early start, made the beautiful drive to Lees Ferry, hiked out on the River Trail and found this slender beach—a little piece of sand all my own. I planted my hiker butt in the sand and didn’t budge for the better part of an hour. I just breathed and watched the sun and the cliffs, and the water flowing past. That’s all I needed. When I was ready, I got up, drove to Cliff Dwellers Lodge, ate a great burger and pushed on to Kanab to have a terrific vacation. The last part was a bonus. What was most important—for reasons I don’t even understand—was to sit beside that river in that spot on a late summer morning. So many of my most vivid memories are because the earth called me to a specific location and I went. I don’t know why but I think I’ll keep heeding those calls. I haven’t yet been led astray.

08/13/2024

Appreciate Fil Kewanyama's art and wisdom:
"Perseid Meteor Shower 2024
"Monday evening sees the peak of the Perseid meteor shower, the year’s most prolific and popular display of “shooting stars” in the northern hemisphere. One of the astronomical highlights of 2024.
In 2024, this meteor shower’s peak will occur late on Sunday, August 11 and into the early hours of Monday, August 12. Although you can look at any time during the hours of darkness, the best advice is to wait until the moon is down, around before midnight and in the hours following. Rates tend to peak in the hours before dawn.
This is our Hopi Perseid meteor shower.....
Hopi_Na'naank Sohu (Chasing/Shooting Star)
Acrylic on canvas
36” x 36” w/out frame
Yoimasa: Art of Fil Fil Kewanyama
This painting depicts a star katsina Nunqasohu. Hopi legends say that when one looks up into the sky, they will at times see these star katsinum playing, chasing each other's into the night, all thru the universe. This is what most see and refer to as shooting stars or falling stars. He is holding his bell in his left hand and a yucca whip in the right hand. Some say they can hear their bells as they shoot thru the night."

08/02/2024

Grateful for the beauty and abundance of our natural world and of the harvest time.
This week is the midsummer, half way to fall, cross quarter day known as Lammas.

LAMMAS ||| LUGHNASADH

Lammas is a celebration of the summer and the gathering in of the grain harvest. This was especially significant in the past. After all the hard work of getting the grain crop cut, threshed, stored and stacked, there came a time for feasting, celebration and assessment. Lammas is a Saxon name meaning ‘Loaf-mass’. Lughnasadh (pronounced Loo-nas-ah) is Irish Gaelic.

Over on the website, Glennie Kindred shares more about Lammas, its history, and the herbs to use in celebrating this changing of the seasons.

https://www.permaculture.co.uk/articles/lammas-celebrating-summers-harvests

07/30/2024

Thundershower over 7,000' rim of Oak Creek Canyon by Shonto Begay.
When you are in the canyon, it is draws the eyes upward like you have a lens to the cliff rims and skies above. Shonto evokes that feeling of the power of thundershower with hard driving rain.

Shonto Begay (c) 2024
Down Oak Creek Switchbacks
( in a passing Male Storm )
20”x24”
Acrylic on canvas

06/18/2024

Peak of the Solar infusion of Light this Summer Solstice week.
May you be blessed by this celestial Light
And radiant with your own inner Light.

NASA Sun Earth image
"CME blast and subsequent impact at Earth -- This illustration shows a CME blasting off the Sun’s surface in the direction of Ea CME blast and subsequent impact at Earth -- This illustration shows a CME blasting off the Sun’s surface in the direction of Earth. This left portion is composed of an EIT 304 image superimposed on a LASCO C2 coronagraph. Two to four days later, the CME cloud is shown striking and beginning to be mostly deflected around the Earth’s magnetosphere. The blue paths emanating from the Earth’s poles represent some of its magnetic field lines. The magnetic cloud of plasma can extend to 30 million miles wide by the time it reaches earth. These storms, which occur frequently, can disrupt communications and navigational equipment, damage satellites, and even cause blackouts. (Objects in the illustration are not drawn to scale.)
Credit: NASA/GSFC/SOHO/ESA To learn more go to the SOHO website: sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/home.html
To learn more about NASA's Sun Earth Day go here: sunearthday.nasa.gov/2010/index.php

05/08/2024

I sense the energies flowing in this creative interpretation of Light Patterns and Raven speaks painting by Navajo artist Shonto Begay. I can imagine being there.

Shonto Begay (c) 2024
Monumental Gaagi’
( canyonlands drama of light and shadows and a couple of wings short of a murder )

Canvas with acrylic paint scripting

12x24”

05/08/2024

Take it to the Center
"Anything you are worried about,
take it to the center and let it go.
Then, when you walk out,
you do not have to worry--
it is gone.."

Value of walking the labyrinth summarized by Iris Rogan, who is leading the effort to build a labyrinth in 2024 in Chances Park, Carlisle, UK.

photo of a Sedona area 7-Path Labyrinth by Sandra Cosentino