My last morning in Sedona for at least six months. I get up extra early so I have more time to watch the light dawn, and the sun slowly slip up behind the distant mountains. I slip on Leo's leash, take up my bear staff, and begin our walk. So many memories of the many sunrise walks we have taken fill my mind, I have to make a special effort to focus on here and now---to take in the changing light, the shadows, my shadow. I am choosing to believe that the imprint of my presence in the beautiful places I have walked so often with my heart singing and full of gratitude will be more lasting than my shadow! Yet, the truth is that our lives are like shadows in the landscape, constantly changing with the terrain and the light, and as swiftly fleeting. Nevertheless, they are part of a larger Mystery and Divine Pattern and Beauty which we can only glimpse as we live the moments of our lives. On this morning, I take pictures of my shadow and the shadows of the trees, rocks, and plants, and then sit under a great Grand Mother Cedar tree that stands on the banks of Dry Creek. Once more, I play my flute as the sun comes up. Once more, I lean back against the great tree and feel its energy blending with mine, and its strength and support--physical expressions of God's strength and support every day of my life.
I will carry the memory of this sacred land and these special hours out in it with me, and will look forward to the time when I can once again take a Sedona Sunrise walk.
Until then, there will be beautiful walks on the beach of Lake Michigan, and many times of sunset prayer, balancing the sunrise prayer: Beauty at the beginning and the end of each day and of life. Gerard Manley Hopkins' lines come to mind: "Give Beauty, beauty, beauty back to God, Beauty's Self and Beauty's Giver."
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