ABOUT AWE, PART 2

Zion National Park, Utah

Written October 9, 2019

We are still in AWE Country.  Last Christmas (Post, "Merry Christmas To All," 12/23/18) I wrote about my back surgery and the confinement it caused.  Not all bad by any means, punctuated by friends and lovely caretakers.  Well, the surgery must have succeeded because here we are following trails into canyons and up rivers and having more of those unbelievable feelings of awe.  At nature, at geological time, at God.  Not one of those tiny pleasures that I'm so grateful for every day.  But something huge! 
 

Mitten Butte, Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park

Have you ever visited a place and thought, "What if I had been born here?  What if my family lived here and I came here all the time?"  I remember being quite young and thinking "What if this Swiss village were my home?"  Instead, I've never returned.  It was a once-in-a-lifetime thing.  This place is like that.  You want more.  More days, more nights. . . last evening in the Navajo Tribal Park it was so quiet.  We and the other visitors fell silent as the sun set.  People seemed to whisper out of respect for the landscape. 

Sunset, Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park

In my hometown of Durham, North Carolina, one of the experiences that brings awe is listening to the Duke University Chapel organist play Widor's Toccata (1879) on the Chapel's great organ.  If you can't recall the piece, or just want to listen right now, it's easy to call up.  It's a favorite at royal weddings.  Mentioning it, I am hearing it in my head.  Sitting here in Utah writing what I'll want to post when I get home I have two blessings:  the music in my head and the canyons all around.  

Funny how awe works.  It can be there to see or hear or feel, or even just recall and recreate.  So much to be grateful for.  And right now, Number 1 on my list is my back surgeon!                           
                              With thanksgiving, Nina Naomi