21 September 2007
The Life Force of Arizona
Posted under places beginning with: S; Sedona; Arizona .
This entry comes to us from Windy Lynn Harris of Phoneix, Arizona and talks of the tranquility of desert landscapes
I moved to the Sonoran desert and found the essence of this world. There is something special in the earth here, I can feel it. When I stand and look at the red rocks of Sedona and the quiet Camelback Mountain, I breathe it. Spiritual ties eluded me before this place, but now I feel connected to something greater.
I was just trying to learn about Arizona when I first moved here, trying to understand this surprising new landscape. I went on adventures and found myself at the Cave Creek Museum. The last “tuberculosis house” in the country sits at the back of the property there. It’s a small one room shack with screen windows and bare floors, a temporary home to someone trying to be cured in the desert. There is only room for a twin bed and a chair.
Thousands of people came from all over the country to restore their physical condition. They set up towns in these mini houses, communities of healing in the desert. They made churches, giant kitchens, and traded with the locals for what they needed. They stayed until they were better. I was awed at the thought of it. What if it was more than just the dry air that cured them? I wondered.
I started to notice the flyers for inner-healing from the Buddhist Center and the Mount Claret Retreat Center. I learned that this is a community dedicated to healing the body and the spirit through meditation, energy yoga, and talking circles. There is a stone labyrinth at the Spirit of the Desert Retreat Center, five harmonious gardens at the Chinese Cultural Center, and a healing garden at the Franciscan Renewal Center. The Indians that live among us now and the ones of the past have always used the desert for medicine. The saguaro cactus gives fruit each year and is still harvested by the Tohono O’odlam. How amazing, I thought. How truly unique.
I spent time at the valley’s Rock Art museum where ancient Indians gathered near a water supply to trade. They left their marks on the rocks as petroglyphs that tell stories of survival, family, and beliefs. There is a figure of a man there in the stone. He holds a staff in one hand and wears something tall on his head. I studied this stick man carefully, wondering what he represented. There is speculation he is a medicine man. I think so too. He appears in petroglyph sites all over Arizona, healing the other stick figures.
I heard the word vortex again and again. What is that, I wondered? And does it have something to do with me? A trip to Sedona answered that question. Yes, it said. This is for you. I was in awe of the red rocks. Standing in the Boynton Canyon sunshine I felt relaxed and renewed. I have never seen such beauty and felt calm like that. I knew I was in the presence of the thing that unites us, heals us, and enlivens us. It was a vortex, a swirling center of subtle energy coming from the earth. I thought back to the Rock Art center again. There is another symbol in the rocks there, a circular line, never ending.
The harsh Arizona desert surprised me as I realized it was one of the most therapeutic places in the world. The giant saguaros that pepper the landscape of my neighborhood remind me daily that this is a special place. They stand tall, barbed with long spikes to keep predators away. But on the inside it is a sanctuary for birds, water to save a thirsty person, the buds of spring flowers. I felt the prickly exterior of the desert bloom as it showed me the most beautiful thing in the world: peace.
