These two images were essentially in sight of each other.  Which brings me to this:

Today, I heard a really good story.    So now, if I may…. share it here.

=.=.=.=.=..=.=..=..=.=.=.=.=…=.=.=

There was a huge and ancient city in the middle of the desert.  A traveler approached that city walls, and asked the man sitting by the gate, “What is it like here?”

The gatekeeper responded, “What was it like where YOU came from?”

“Oh, my holy socks.  It was a terrible place. Awful!” the traveler responded.  “The people were unfriendly and would take advantage of you in a heartbeat.  There were no jobs, and the town was terribly ugly.”

“Well… that is pretty much what you will find here,” answered the gatekeeper.

So… the traveler shook his head in disgust, and continued on his way.

Then… about an hour later, another traveler walked up to the gate.  “What is it like here?”

Once again, the gatekeeper asked, “What was it like where YOU came from?”

“Oh, my oh my,” the traveler chimed.  “It was a lovely place.  Lots of friendly people and beautiful vistas.  Great food.  A very rich and wonderful culture.”

“Well.  That’s pretty much what you will find here,” answered the gatekeeper.    The traveler smiled and walked through the gates to his new home.

=.=.=.=.=.=…=.=..=.=..=.=..=…=.=..=.=.=

And there you have it.  Really.  We see this world…. not as it is…. but as we are.  Reality is a very tricky thing.  Each of us has our own.   And the reality we experience is the one that is formed by the notions and conceptions we hold in our minds.

We see the world as we see it.  And how we see it…. has a great impact on our lives and our reactions…. to everything.  Each part influences the other.  And then it all connects.  The old glass half empty or full postulation.

We really own nothing in this life… except for what is in our minds, our hearts, and our spirit.

“From now on, I will connect the dots my own way.”  – Bill Waterson

When you tell most people that you are going to visit Utah… they respond with:  “What the heck is in Utah?”

Yes.  It is the underestimated state… in my estimation.

There is plenty here.  Really.

Big rocks.  Lots of big pretty rocks.  (And yes….this is yet another evening in which I have provided additional visual evidence to support my claim of all the huge rocks.)

At the very top of some of the big rocks….   more than 500 inches of snow falls  per year.  Powdery snow.  People come here with skis strapped on to their tootsies as a result.

Now…. if you are an actor, you may want to go to Kanab.  It is known as Little Hollywood.  Who knew that a large number of motion pictures are filmed each year… there in little Kanab.

And since we speak of towns…. Levan is located smack dab in the center of Utah.  Look at that town’s name backward, and it spells navel.  Huh.

Utah has five national parks: Arches, Canyonlands, Zion, Bryce and Capitol Reef.  It also has six national forests:  Ashley, Dixie, Fishlake, Manti-LaSal, Uinta, and Wasatch-Cache.

The state bird is the California Sea Gull.  Now what is wrong with that picture?

The state cooking pot… is the Dutch Oven.  First they borrow from California… and then from the Dutch.    Thank goodness the state tree is a Blue Spruce.  If it were the Buckeye Tree, I’d really start to wonder about these folks.

However…. these folks out here…….  They ARE a little quirky here indeed.  I asked one lady where she was from….. and she said: “You Tall.”

I said… “No.  Me not tall.  Me short.  So where you from?”

“You Tall.”

Again…. “Nope….  I am not nearly as tall as some.  So then tell me….. where are you from?”

Oh….this went on and on.  I never did get a straight answer.  And she just walked away shaking her head.

At any rate.  The day was good.  I saw more cliffs, and formations, and great big boulders.   One of them teeters… way up on a ledge.  Yep.  It Rocks.

I’ve also noticed this about some of the graveyards and headstones out here.  They look the same as they do back east, and down in the south.

The thing that I’ve seen is this.  It appears that “life” is the dash between the birth date and the death date.

So…  Make YOUR Dash Count!  – Polly the Kronyish

How in the heck, I ask you, can things on this planet be so incredibly sensational?  For the past four days, I have stood in awe of our world.  Not only the physical part of our surroundings.  In this…. our mutual home.   But also the spiritual aspects.  The two are connected, I think.

In Physics, one of the laws…. a big stinking ONE of the laws…..  states that energy can neither be created, nor destroyed.

If I may bore you for just one moment… please.  This is how it follows.

The Law of Conservation of Energy was first formulated in the nineteenth century.  To you and me… that is in the 1800s.  Again… this is a LAW of Physics.

It basically…. very basically….. states that the total amount of energy in an isolated system remains constant over time.

So what does this mean?  Again… it is barest explanation:  The total energy is said to be conserved over time. So…… for an isolated system…. this law means that energy can CHANGE its LOCATION within the system.  AND that energy can also CHANGE FORM within the system.  But it can’t be Houdini and disappear.

Like… if you think of “scientific nomenclature”…..  you would say that chemical energy can become kinetic energy.  BUT…. THAT ENERGY can be neither created nor destroyed.  So red energy can become blue energy… but it cannot be NO energy.

Okay… I’m finished with the Physics.  So we, as people… are really just a form of energy within this greater system.  So are trees, and rocks, and birds, and dogs…. and house flies.  And when the physical body dies, it decays… and turns into other things…

But it is the spiritual energy that can’t really be measured very well.  So where does it go?  What happens to the energy that is love, and… determination, and will, and courage, and curiosity….. and so on?

That goes where…. and in to what?

I think it persists….  or remains… … or continues…. in other ways, shapes, and forms.

Some of us feel it…. or think we feel it.  Others do not… or think they do not.  Neither, is right or wrong…. I don’t suspect.    But I also suggest….. that OUR energy goes where we want it to.  And every time we make a decision with our current energy… we are making a decision about how it will continue on.

Yes.  Perhaps we choose…. exactly…. what shape and form …..  our energy will be next.

By the things we think, and do, and say… and give.  By the way we choose to live our lives.  What if that is how it goes?

“The greatest gift is a portion of oneself.”  – Ralph Waldo Emerson

A lot of times…. we just see the big.

That big huge thing.  What ever “that” thing is.

I’m not saying that is necessarily bad.  Often is is very good.

But sometimes it might be better for us to focus on the small.

And other times it is just difficult to know…. which one of those things we should be paying attention to.

Yes.  On occasion … it is hard to really know in which direction we should be looking.

That is  the way it goes.

We try our best.

But quite simply… there are times… when we just don’t know.

“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” -Robert Brault

One thing that completely astounds me… is the incredible beauty and mystery of our planet.

When I am in places such as this…. I become more mindful of the complete exquisiteness, and grandeur of this place we call home.

The earth came into being about 4.5 billion years old.   BILLION.  That in itself is mind-boggling.  Overwhelming.  (Humans a blinky little sliver of that…. 14,000 years.)

Leave it to the Grand Canyon to remind you of its comeliness, and mystique, in the same breath.  I think the rocks are painted with Fairy-Gold.

Today was a jaw-dropping experience for me.  Of all the National Parks I have visited in my lifetime, I have never had the opportunity to visit the Grand Canyon before now.

Two things I will tell you for sure.

It IS a Canyon.
It IS Grand.

Whoever named this sucker was right on his game that day.

It is a wildly large place.  Which opens the doors for a wildly number of stories.  Stories about its history, and formation, and character.  Stories about Cameron the Canyon Swindler, Coulter the Master Designer…. AND… a woman. The Kolb Brothers and their photography.  Captain John Hance… who wasn’t a captain of anything. The first Up-Run on the river…. and the upheaval of the Indians.

Today, I was introduced to both the visual allure of the Canyon, as well as the cerebral enticement.

Yes.  The stories.  The sights.  The sounds.  The smells.  The emotions.  The overload.  And….

The Gratefulness for it all.

In the morning… I think I will go outside and hug a few rocks.  They’ve been around a lot longer than I have…. and they have opened the door for new learning and awareness in my life.

I bet they hug back.

 “Stories are like fairy gold, the more you give away, the more you have.” –  Unknown

In…..Sedona, Arizona.

Lots of music with a tone-a.
On a sandwich, have bologna.
Dance with someone or alone-a.
Eat your ice-cream with a cone-a.
Or your coffee with a foam-a.
Make a call on a free phone-a.

My third home-away-from-home-a.
The energy found my zone-a.

…. and they have rocks.  Lots of big rocks.

“everything has rhythm. everything dances.” – Maya Angelou

These are the days.

And boy, oh boy… this was one of them.  In a good way.  In a very good way.

From the earliest of starting out this morning… before the coffee was even ready to get up….

To three little dogs… who gave the best pouty faces I have ever seen….

With a slight snafu at the airport parking garage elevator…
You see…. I got off the elevator… with all the other strangers…., and watched the doors close as Mary said…”Arrrrgggghhhhh” and headed downward.   AND  THEN… everyone who had just been on that same elevator… now surrounded me in the hallway…. and ….. screamed in unison.. …”Arrrrrrggggghhhhhhhh!”

The lady next to me panicked…. …. … “Oh no!  Will she come back?”  To which I answered….”I kind of doubt it.  She’ll probably just chuck the whole idea and head back for the car.”

Oh… these are the days.

While behind the wheel….. and negotiating Sedona, Arizona… in search of some groceries… I was given some very good advice…. which follows……  “You may as well maintain your ignorance…. and keep on going.”

Ahhhhh.  Maintain my ignorance.  Among other things.  And keep going.

Yes.  These are the days.  The very best days.

…. and then we laughed, and laughed, and laughed.

“If it’s not fun, you’re not doing it right” – Bob Basso

It is funny how the brain works.  Well.  Funny how my brain works.

I’ll be sitting, all wrapped up in the middle of something or other…. you know…. paying bills, washing dishes, planting bugging devices on the bottoms of trash cans… you know….

… those sorts of things.

And then it will hit me.  “Holy smokes.  I miss Steve Canyon.”  OR, “I wish Johnny Quest was still around.”  OR….”What the heck ever happened to Danger Mouse?”

Yeah…..I miss Danger Mouse.

But not as much as I miss Mighty Mouse.

Mighty Mouse had Mojo.   That guy was so cool…. and he looked great in tights.  And nobody could throw down Karaoke like that little rodent could.  “Here he is… to save the DAAAAaaaaaaay.”  That dude could knock back a Strawberry Milkshake like none other.

I miss him.  And his little red cape.

In either case…  Danger Mouse, or Mighty Mouse….. you could always blame it on the mouse.  Which is my theme really.  Blame it all on the mouse.

Once again, me and the mouse in my pocket.

If you were a leaf… what color would you be?  Do leafs know from the start that they will end up red, or yellow, or orange?  Or does the final color come from sun and water intake?  Predetermined… or circumstantial?

You know….

Some kids seem very happy and carefree.  Others seem to have the weight of the world on their shoulders.  Adults are the same way.

I wonder if we are born with a pre-installed disposition.  A little barcode.  I wonder… if… when we plop out of the womb… we have a pre-set of ticks and tocks.  And from there it goes.

Or perhaps it isn’t that at all.  Maybe we all enter into this world with tapioca for our emotional status.  We are just plain yogurt.  Tofu.  Grits.  And whatever flavor is added… that is the flavor we become.  Except for the consistency.  You know…. grits are way different from yogurt in consistency.  But cheddar grits, and cheddar yogurt both taste recognizably cheddar.

Some people just seem happy through and through.  To the very core of their being.  It doesn’t matter if a somebody pukes on their shoes… they say “Wow.  That was fortunate.  They could’ve puked on my lap.”

But other folks are just cranky.  Curmudgeons.  Mr. Grumpy Pants. No pleasing them, no matter what.

Why?  Is it the inner map?  Or the surroundings?  The lot in life?  Or the DNA of it all?

Probably a bit of both.

But what if we DO all start out with the same disposition.  And then it shape-shifts as we get older.

When does it all change? When do we lose our mojo?  When do we get nervous, or angry, or fearful, or loopy?

I think I started out being wound this tight.  Yep.  I think the tension started when I was in the ovary… waiting for my turn to get out… and away…. from all those other…. crazy-freaking-eggs.

And, because I was the last born in the family, I felt that I was late… or that I had missed out on something.  Yep…. late for the party.

It is all a mystery to  me.  I’m just pretty happy I busted out of the ovary.  I’ll tell you that much right now.  What color leaf will I be?  I think I’ll keep my face toward the warmth of the sun… and hope it changes my color for the good.

“The final mystery is oneself.” – Oscar Wilde

Silo.
Hi Ho.
Fly Low.
My Toe.
By Joe.
Pie Pro.
I Know.
Tie Bow.
Tai Bo.
Guy Mow.
Rye Dough.
Fry Roe.
Lie No.
Sigh Woe.
Why Go?

“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.” – Buddha