Mandatory Listening for Monday

Epiphanies:or just remembering things you already knew but forgot

Some things the desert made me realize:

1- you should always Love without condition/attachment

2- How out of touch with nature I am. When I was little I used to live outdoors...riding my horse bareback in the mountains by myself, hiking in the mountains, sleeping under the stars all summer, camping, exploring...never was I afraid of anything!

Now I am older and always in the city....and even though I try to get out in the great wide open as much as possible, I am so out of touch with the natural world...the sounds...the animals...the feeling of being so small. The unknown summons fear, and I hate feeling afraid of something I used to love so much...I miss feeling connected with the animals, plants, water, air, night....now I feel like an old estranged lover coming back and expecting everything to be the way it was... the only solution is more exposure and time......

I wonder if my senses are just on overload...when I am camping or hiking I feel so many strong emotions at the same time....joy, awe, love, fear, happiness, peace...perhaps my senses that have been on the back burner are just coming alive again. That is a good thing.

3- I remembered how to listen to my heart...

4-We are not victims of circumstance, we create our lives....we are 100% responsible for the way our lives are and how we choose to view life...whether it is good or bad...positive or negative.

5-I am a tiny small dot in time in relation to existence and the universe...

...World Peace....

I believe that to meet the challenges of our times, human beings will have to develop a greater sense of universal responsibility. Each of us must learn to work not just for one self, one's own family or one's nation, but for the benefit of all humankind. Universal responsibility is the key to human survival. It is the best foundation for world peace. _Dalai Lama

Going South.

I am off to the beautiful Desert of Southern Utah... what a gem of a state we live in. So many National Parks encapsulating so much mind blowing beauty. It makes me happy to live so close to these places that basically take up half of our lower state....it's like having the best playground you could ever imagine right in your backyard, with hieroglyphs from Native Americans, delicate, unworldly Arches that have been forever kissed and shaped by the wind, and rock so red that you feel like you are on Mars. Yes, I am so happy to go South for a week... to feel nature...to feel free...and to feel alive.

We are headed first to Moab for some camping, hiking, and climbing.. We will be hitting Arches National Park, Dead Horse Point, and do some climbing.

After Moab, we are heading to Escalante and then to Bryce Canyon...........which are new places that I have never seen before...we are going to do some hiking and hopefully backpack up a trail one night and pitch our tent...

Or we may do the trip in reverse order.. we don't really have a set plan...... which is also really cool. One thing we do have is delicious, yummy, healthy, organic food...probably too much food... but that's okay.

Here's to finding your soul in the Desert...under the stars and big sky.

I don't dare breath until the end.

Weapon of Choice: Bumblebee vs Drumstick

Oatmeal, green tea, and Ella on vinyl were all the makings of a cozy Sunday morning.... I opened up my patio door to let in all the morning light and that fresh autumn air, when a little bumblebee decided to join me for breakfast...

At first he scared me because he rushed in, getting all up close and personal...A bumblebee has never decided to come in unannounced before. It's usually the occasional fly or moth....so when the bumble bee came in I was on guard and the adrenaline was flowing!

I ran out of the kitchen and into the living room to take cover.....looking for a weapon of sorts. The bumblebee didn't have any intentions of leaving soon, so I decided to chase him out. My eye lay upon a signed drumstick I had acquired at a Gym Class Heroes concert a few years back (before they started sucking)(that's what she said) I grabbed it thinking it should do the trick. It was long and also a hard (that's what she said)...

I reentered my kitchen armed and ready for a fight....I made my first attack swing to get the little bee's attention... well, that just royally ticked him off... this was turning into a major territorial battle... A joust ensued....I felt like I was in The Princess Bride. "Hello my name is Natasha Hilton. You entered my kitchen. Prepare to die." Bzzzz bzzzzzz bzzzz.

And for a moment, I stepped outside of myself to realize how ridiculous I looked... fighting off a little tiny bee with a drumstick...listening to old Jazz music...tea kettle whistling...just when the notion of ridiculousness struck me, I heard a "BAP!"..my drumstick met my bee like a bat meets a ball....and my little opponent was struck down to my linoleum floor.....

He was injured... oh the guilt...I never intended to harm any bees this morning.... or flies... or anyone or anything for that matter....I just wanted to chase him out the door...I didn't think I would actually be able to hit the thing...I was just flinging the drumstick wildly back and forth with terrible form and lack luster technique!

I gently picked him up with a paper towel and put him in my flower box on my patio...."sorry little fella," was all I could say..."Next time I will try to pummel something my own size with a drumstick."

Stir the embers; they burst into flame

Stir your heart and mind; you arise and transcend