This Travelogue is serving several purposes for me. On the one hand I’m doing most of my daily journaling here as well as communicating to my friends and family, and then documenting my daily activities and travel experiences. This is a good writing exercise for me and may lead me in directions I cannot see at the moment.
It is Sat morning and I’m in my hotel room in Gallup New Mexico. I have decided to spend 2 nights here and will go out on field trips today to Red Rock park and then maybe to the Zuni Pueblo.
Yesterday was an awesome day really. I finally got out of my campsight and the GC park by 10:30 am and then made another stop at the Petrified wood lady, Marge. Her place is a Mecca for me. Her late husband had spent many years collecting stones and petrified wood and they were All laying in many and various piles. I went to each pile in my 3 visits there, picking my most favorite pieces, and only from the top layer. What fun was that!
I decided to just wiz past Flagstaff and went onto stops at Meteor Crater, where the Advertisement was........
Feel the Impact.
I heard it on the AM station as they gave info for the place. Hearing their voice say those words still makes me laugh and smile. Funny how some things can just make me laugh and laugh.
Well the Crater and museum was cool, and just getting a sense of something like this happening. I’ve seen a lot of shooting stars at Esalen. Mostly in the early morning hours, and I can imagine sometimes one of them is big enough and can make impact with the earth. It was cool to look at the research in the museum, and viewing the photos of the Moon and Mars gives us a visual of the normalcy, in a way, of meteors making contact with planets. And they suppose maybe a meteor is the reason the dinosaurs went extinct. Hmmm
I also stopped at the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert National parkland. I see that stopping and taking photographs is another way that I’m making art on this trip. I have a lot of editing to do and Wow, is it beautiful! The landscapes over and over again are so stunning. Really uplifting for me. If I see it as an artist I look at the shapes of the mountains but also the shapes created by the various colors of the landscape. It’s also a play b/w light and dark, shadows which look more purple or blue to me and then the bright greens and yellows and reds of the landscape.
I’ve been doing a small sketch book and one watercolor the other day at the Grand Canyon. I didn’t like the WC and felt/feel discouraged. This is a normal process for anyone who creates art, dealing with the inner judge which is often overly judgemental and harsh. I look at it this way. If I make 10 drawings or paintings of the same thing, 2 or 3 will be trash, and 4-5 will be okay, not bad, I’ll keep them for a while, and 2 or 3 will be really good and I like them a lot. Every thing I create does not have to be a masterpiece. This is a very calming salve for anyone who is expressing creativity in their life.
Alright, I have made it to Gallup, New Mexico and will spend the night here in this train town. I like it here. People say it is in the heart of Indian land and indeed, I feel like I am in the Valle Sagrado de Peru or Oaxaca Mexico with all the indigenous people, all the dark skinned native peoples. I feel so at ease and so comfortable here in this environment.
I realize that my and our ancestors committed a Holocaust of sorts against the Native American Peoples. I have often felt the grief of this collective injustice when I am around them, and my heart feels so sorry for what happened to their people and way of life. What I can see about native peoples of the world is that they are more intimately connected to the primary forces of nature and have a developed intuitive sense about them. They are seemingly less well educated, I can feel this in my interactions with them. I feel so sad that the Native community deals with such a demon in the form of alcoholism, surely coming from a loss of identity, I don’t know.
I walked into a native restaurant this evening and I felt so honored to be there, nearly the only white face. I was so impressed by how quiet the room was, a large room with maybe 30-40 of us in there. Maybe life is boring in this isolation/small town and at this elevation. It was like a heaviness or weight in the room as everyone spoke very quietly. It was just a remarkable experience. I love looking at the features of these native Navajo people. They are so beautiful as a people.
Okay, off to bed....
Buenas Noches amigos y amigas,
Thomas
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