Moab

Moab. The name emits a deep tone when you say it. Like the name of an ancient god that when uttered shakes the ground and rumbles the valleys. It evokes a feeling. Its sound stirs a deep water in the soul and its landscape is as soft and smooth as the way it rolls off your lips. Ancient rock formations that stand the test of time. Each archway and pillar stand up like doorways to the sky.

After all it is named from the ancient Kingdom in what is modern day Jordan. There is a spirit here much like so many places across the world. The burnt red stone and the misty green tree line that paves the bottom of the canyon reminds me that water always finds a way to wherever it is going. If there is a rock it goes around it but over time, it will eventually go through it.

At night the sky lights up from a Super Flower Moon. It rises over the mountains to the east like Cinderella making her entrance to the ball. Collapsing all darkness around her as her canary yellow face begins to show.

The shadows along the canyon wall create faces along the desert as the moon makes its ascent higher into the night sky. The faces show wonder and awe but also fear as they know they only exist because of her shining beauty. The images along the sage and dirt are one of the many things she creates. The once brilliant constellations are now diminished to a faint twinkle. The moon has arrived ladies and gentlemen. Its full, its fabulous and fierce.

The goddess of love and planet to the west shares the sky but only for a moment before all eyes are drawn back to the main attraction. As she continues her dance however, the gaze zooms out and the full moon is nothing more than a spec.

The cosmos is magical like that. In one minute, you are in a galaxy far, far away and in the next back home on earth looking up at Apollo. Remembering that a minute doesn’t even exist beyond your mind and yet you are now trapped in one. In Moab the voices are everywhere. The topography is grand and majestic. Each corner you turn showcases another monumental wonder that provides peace and assurance that everything will be okay.

When you get out in nature one can argue that you really find what you need. Either because it has what you need or because you can be quiet enough to listen to it tell you what you need.

It will whisper in your ear that the only things you need are to remember you are part of this beauty. Looking out to wonder like its laid out before you but in reality you are standing in the middle of it and to someone you are the center of that beauty.  

The heat will remind you that you are small but that you burn with the energy of a thousand suns. We are made up from stardust. From the exploded particles of the ancient galaxies before us and we will be in the next life form that we one day create together when our sun burns out.

Moab was once the playground of ancient gods. Giants that stood long before and have now moved to other worlds to continue their frolic. But in a gesture of good will they left us a wonder of their own. Their voice. And its here to help us remember we already have everything we need.