Goodbye Grand Canyon, Goodbye RV

  Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, United States
Friday, May 15, 2009

family shot

Good morning from a Lake Mead, a man-made lake in the Grand Canyon created by a dam in the Colorado River. As I write, the kids are happily playing Frisbee & Ross is unhooking/emptying the RV.... I am happy to say that I have not yet had the privilege of participating in this ritual. Good division of labor, I blog, Ross puts on the rubber gloves...

great view

The Grand Canyon was the perfect place to end our trip. It is grande both in size & in its impact. So many different outlooks, each with a different perspective on the canyon. I am glad we came here last, the smaller canyons may have seemed anti-climactic after being here. Regardless of the size, there is something so powerful & almost mystical about canyons... which formed beneath the surface of the earth over hundreds of millions of years. At every park we went to we heard something like "______ Canyon was formed by unseen forces deep within the earth" & the "____ Canyon is still changing each year." Looking down on the canyon is beautiful, but being inside it you feel sheltered & surrounded by a majesty beyond words. Each one leaves a slightly different imprint on the soul. Are not our souls like a canyon with hidden depths & beauty? As we wind down our National Park tour, we feel a twinge of soul nostalgia for the Presence & Beauty of each place.

a cairn emily made on her solo hike

Beauty is not to be captured or controlled for there is something intrinsically elusive in its nature. More like a visitation than a solid fact, beauty invests the aura of a person or infuses a landscape with an unexpected intimacy that satisfies our longing. True beauty cannot be invented or manufactured. We "cannot bear very much reality." Neither, it seems can we bear very much beauty. The glimpse, the touch of beauty is enough to quicken our hearts with the longing for the divine. Beauty never finally satisfies though she intensifies our longing & refines it. Where the human person simply soul, beauty would be an absolute embrace. We are, however threshold creatures of deep ambivalence & when beauty touches the matrix of human selfhood, it can only be just that: a touch.

the 3 pilgims

small moments

a duck keeps hopping on our kayak

Not sure 100% what has really resonated with the kids. At times they seemed totally oblivious to the amazingness of all these amazing places. The Junior Ranger program has been a great way to help them engage with & experience the park. Sometimes they have been a bit too focused on earning the badge, but in their own way they have each connected with something at each place, sometimes it was the smaller things like the yucca plant or a chipmunk stealing Lexi's ice cream cone or a Ranger lecture on bats at Zion & the condor here at the Grand Canyon. The boys seemed the most engaged with the landscape when they were doing a hard, challenging hike. They both wished that they could have hiked all the way down to the Colorado River... maybe when they are older they will come back & do the whole canyon together.

Luke's Jr Ranger Badges

I promise to discover all I can about Grand Canyon National Park & to share my discoveries with others. I pledge to enjoy & protect Grand Canyon & all national parks, & to be a friend to my planet Earth.
Grand Canyon Junior Ranger Pledge (they took these oaths very seriously)

Highlights from Grand Canyon:

boys after hike

our hike together

circle of life dance

luke & erik

what is he up to?

what is he stirring up?

exploring a hot cave

getting up the nerve to jump

32 ft rock all 3 kids jumped from

erik encouraging lexi

lexi unsure

plunge! she did it!

Lexi meeting up with her French friend Angelique for the 3rd time, the kids earning their 10th Junior Ranger badge, Ross & the boys hiking the Kaibob Trail while Lexi & mom spent the day together wandering around souvenir stores, a jr ranger assignment which had us spend 10 minutes in silence "listening" to the canyon with all our senses, a native American dance which we unexpectantly became part of when a flying hoola hoop hit Luke in the chest & then Lexi in the nose (Lexi still has a mark on her nose, good thing it hit Luke first absorbing some speed), Emily doing a late afternoon solo hike down Bright Angel Trail & last but not least Luke tragically falling rear-end into a cactus bush while goofing around with his brother (he is LOL now about it, but it was not a pretty scene while Dr. Dad was tweezing), kayaking in the Colorado River & exploring hot caves & natural saunas & all of the kids jumping off of a 32 ft high rock. Lexi was unbelievably brave & would not be shown up by her brothers. They were actually very impressed by her! Oh, one more...watching Ross do the economics project with the kids. They all kept track of certain expenses throughout our RV trip, saved receipts & actually worked pretty harmoniously together! Ross was in his element.

www.roadbear.com

doesn't he look good with a beard?

Signing off from the RV...
It hasn't all been a picnic
(my blogs screen out a lot of family reality...)
but its been a good ride
each day an unfolding adventure
fun, cozy & pleasantly grundgy
but the Jones Tribe is ready to turn in this Roadbear.

What are you not going to miss about the RV?
Lexi "the smelly bathroom"
Luke "the huge avalanches every time I open cabinet doors
Erik "sleeping diagonal in a bed next to Lexi with my feet hanging off the bed"
Ross "the gray & black water" (I think he is actually going to miss this lovely little ritual) & the stinky shoes
Emily "getting less than 8 miles to the gallon," looking forward to having blonde hair again... I see why people wear bandanas. (I suppose it really isn't fair to blame our hygiene issues on the Roadbear...)


From here, we head to LA (Disneyland!), then the Bay Area, Seattle, Vancouver, & then our grand finale in Alaska. Both of us are sneaking some solo time in... Ross in LA & Emily in Albuquerque... you can imagine why after all of this family togetherness.




Thanks for staying connected with us on this little adventure.
Half way through our trip.
Missing you & missing home.

Cheers

doesn't he look good with a beard?

ross at home

p.s. If there are any eyes still reading, here are some Indian blessings which speak to me of the intimacy & kinship Native Americans had & still have with the earth & which the National Parks bless us with. "Every prayer carries a quality of engagement with it. It is a means of acting upon ourselves, of bringing ourselves into alignment with the rest of creation... at the heart of earth, prayer is a sense of belonging. Belonging is the basic truth of our existence." from Earth Prayers from around the World

We give-away our thanks to the earth which gives us our home.
We give-away our thanks to the rivers & lakes which give-away their water.
We give-away our thanks to the trees which give-away fruit & nuts.
We give-away our thanks to the wind which brings rain to water the plants.
We give-away our thanks to the sun who gives-away warmth & light.
All beings on earth: the trees, the animals, the wind & the rivers give-away to one another so all is in balance.
We give-away our promise to begin to learn how to stay in balance with all the earth.
Dolores la Chapelle

O Great Spirit
Whose voice I hear in the winds,
And whose breath gives life to all the world,
Hear me! I am small & weak, I need your strength & wisdom.
Let me walk in beauty, & make my eyes ever behold the red & purple sunset.
Make my hands respect the things you have made & my ears sharp to hear your voice.
Make me wise so that I may understand the things you have taught my people.
Let me learn the lessons you have hidden in every leaf & rock.
I seek strength, not to be greater than my brother, but to fight my greatest enemy-myself.
Make me always ready to come to you with clean hands & straight eyes.
So when life fades, as the fading sunset, my spirit may come to you without shame.
Traditional Native American Prayer

May all I say & think be in harmony with thee,
God within me, God beyond me, maker of the trees.
Chinook Psalter

blessings for a beautiful day!

cheers