Timeless

I've been home from my trip to Sedona for one week, but time has no definitive meaning for me. Not now. And certainly not while I was hypnotized by the energy field of the Red Rocks and the riparian zone around the Oak Creek Canyon.(Did I mention I fell totally and deeply in love with the Sycamore trees that line the shores of the creek?)

Like the naked story embedded in the geological landscape of the Red Rocks, being in Sedona was like living in a conflated time machine, where my past, present and future played out in curves and layers of transparent, etched stone.

I experienced each day as a swift current, teams of white foam galloping in steel gray water. Yet, when strung together, the sum was much greater than its parts. So while only two solar calendar weeks went by, my space time continuum was more akin to the nighttime dreaming process where mere seconds can feel like hours, and anything is possible. By the time I boarded my plane to Seattle, it felt like I had been in Sedona for a year.

The distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion. - Albert Einstein

I've so much to say about this dance of dimensional time, though I worry I will not be able to express what I lived. Looking back at my blog entries, the metaphor is exemplified by my focus as I walked the labyrinth on my first day at the INNstitute. Each layer and curve, or circuit as they are known, seemed to show me the illusions embedded in traveling one's path. What is far? What is near? Is the end the beginning? The beginning, the end?

Then, on my last day in Sedona, as I walked along Cathedral Rocks, I was in awe of the depth of the land amplified by the layers of ecological zones, soft hills, and mineral formations that curved gently around boulders. As I breathed with the land, I said to myself "curves and layers," though it wasn't until I reread my blog that I realized the bookends of my conscious thoughts.

So what of it? Layers and curves creating illusions of land covered, life covered. Experiencing my past in the present; being fully in the moment of the beauty surrounding me; and coming to know my "future" self, all woven together, impacting each other. Yes, the sum much greater than the parts.

I don't always know what is meant by "be in the now" (and I sense it means different things to different people), but in Sedona, I experienced my past, present, and future as one living organism that I cannot separate.  These experiences seem to rise and fall together, and in this deep understanding, the past is healed, the present is illuminated, and the hope of actualizing my potentiality is real.