Picture: Sunrise @ Lost Dutchman State Park AZ
Sedona
God is taking us on a journey. Well, this is true in the little play even as it is in the grand Lila of life! Thanks to Rick and Judy we have flown to Arizona and have spent the last week in the Valley of the Sun. Karen Haag, a kriyaban who has lived in near Phoenix in Sun City provided us with delightful company as well as an abundance of grapefruit, lemons, and oranges that we picked freshly from her backyard trees! We have had an RV and explored the beautiful desert regions of the Southwest. In case the idea of a desert does not connote beauty to you, believe me that this desert has charming and even spectacular scenes and places of interest.
This is my first time in Arizona and I find that God is a consummate tour Guide. Travelling with Rick and Judy in their own RV we had reservations for Saturday night at a campground near the Kartchner Caverns, the reservations had the wrong date on them and we were ushered to the “overflow” area. The overflow area was vastly superior to the other spots in the campground; sans the noise that weekend travelers often make.
“Oh Ram, how sweetly you look after our smallest comforts, making sure we are surrounded by cactus, wild hares with white cotton tails, beautiful sunsets and a quiet meditation service on Sunday morning in Your natural cathedral. How sweet are Your manifold blessings.”
Inconspicuously hidden beneath the desert hills, covered by rock and sand, are the beautiful Kartchner Caverns. Undiscovered by man until 1974, the caverns have been in formation for the last million years. Two intrepid cavers crawled through an opening that was 10 inches high, 2 feet wide and 20 feet long! Encouraged by the amount of wind coming out of that small opening that was ripe with bat guano smell, they continued until they eventually emerged into vast series of huge caverns with small and delicate, and immense, stalactites, stalagmites, columns and other various types of underground formations that have beautiful colors, shapes and remarkable beauty. It is thrilling to see what nature produced in isolation, what marvels there were just beneath an unremarkable surface.
We have driven north from the Valley of the Sun to Sedona, at an altitude of 4,500 feet. It is cooler here but the sun is shining brightly. As we entered Sedona the red layers of columned rocks greeted us, making for breath taking sculptures. We now have internet coverage so I am happily able to send you these notes. Win and Kathy have once again generously given us a timeshare condominium where we will be staying a little later on.
Even while at this distance from you each day I am drawn deeply within, and in Spirit I feel no separation at all. In the Infinite omniscience there is no time, nor space; therefore no separateness. Love flows out spontaneously, Spirit embraces all there is.
In the all-embracing Spirit I send you all love and blessings, and may God’s Spirit accompany you in all your journey’s, whether close to home or far away.
Ever in God, Christ, Gurus,
David
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Reason Enough: Morning Thoughts April 1, 2014
Gratitude overflows the heart. Oh what gracious spiritual breezes waft through body mind and soul. The wealth of a yogi is in this Presence, this indescribable peace and joy. The world exists, certainly it does. With its ups and downs, pleasures and pains, yet all pales in comparison to this exquisite bliss. The larger God looms into the foreground the more insignificant becomes the variegated nature of the world. Now the joys of the world are pleasing reminders of God’s little gifts, and the pains are promptings to look to the Infinite for comfort and strength. All of these plays of opposites are but a small subset of the grand overarching Spirit. Ah, such awareness does bring gratitude into the life of the devotee; life, love, finding joy spontaneous in the soul are reasons enough.