Azul

June 25

            Blue sky against Red Fir. The vivid blue in this California Sierra Nevada sky is hard to describe. It is a hue so profound and clear that it's somewhat startling every time you look up. Viewed against Red Firs or other dark green conifers it just glows a brilliant blue. I found myself stopping several times to just stare up as we hiked out from our first overnight at Weaver Lake. It was my first night camped out under the Sierra Nevada stars... another momentous day.

First Views...

1. June 19

            A momentous day. First glimpse of a Sequoia grove... hard to express with our limited language. The Paiute name for this region is INYO = The Dwelling or Resting Place of a Great Spirit. We would do well to name these sacred places with such accuracy. After a short two-mile hike from the (thankfully) closed Dorst Campground (thus resulting in complete solitude for this most memorable hike), I quite literally gasped as I came up the hill and suddenly found myself face to face with a 200'+ old giant. No fences, no sidewalks, no mass of shouting tourists as found elsewhere in the park. Just that Great Spirit and I.

My First Summer in the Sierras

June 17 – EWR --> SFO

           Sleeping off a most appropriate NYC despedida full of good music, good dance, good friends... I awake crossing the Great Plains, viewing these tiny little square plots below. My first thought of this grand Summer voyage: I can't help but wonder how it is that they have tried to make their world and this good Earth so square when in fact it is one enormous circle. 

            Over the blessed Rocky Mountains, my breath quickens and a “wow” escapes my lips as I stare out the plane window. Snow topped peaks and lush green valleys – home to my first backcountry hiking trip some twenty years earlier. Some very good memories are kept down there.

            Then Utah and her perfect red rock palaces glowing in the sun below. Glorious Utah. Home to many more defining memories and experiences within this slow, deliberate re-connection journey that I am on. I will see you again soon.

            Another short nap and, suddenly, my first view of the Sierra Nevadas is no less than the crown jewel of John Muir's "Range of Light" – Yosemite Valley seen from 30,000 feet above. Of course. Half Dome is clearly visible, yet looks like a small stone. I take a deep breath. The endless mountains slowly stretch into the clouds on the southern horizon… that’s where I’m headed. 

Children of the Empire

Inspired the Summer 2012, after entering the Giant Sequoia belt of California's Sierra Nevadas for the first time...

So...

After years of traveling, living, studying, listening, questioning, but mostly laughing, all over these Americas, North & South...

…and through these experiences beginning to understand that we who reside upon this Turtle Island now called the US of A live in the latest of a long, long line of crumbling Empires who have attempted to dominate and control almost every living thing around them, and in the process spiritually, psychologically and physically separating ourselves from the cycles of the Earth, thus creating an unprecedented crisis upon Mother Earth...

...and we are its children...

...then, as the children of the Empire,

What are we to do about all of this? And when will we do it?