Westport, Kansas City, Missouri / early morning / near Broadway Cafe and Roasting Company
Tag Archives: meditation
The Secret of the Monkeys’ Confidence
The shriek of macaws, the rustle of leaf blades, the chittering of monkeys. Children flock around their mothers and fathers in crowds of neon colors and tanned skin. The tang of manure mingles with the scent of sunscreen. With utter confidence, Eire strides forward holding her tail in her hand.
We’re at the Santa Ana Zoo (Also known as The Monkey Zoo). Apparently Joseph Prentice, the founder of the zoo, required that there always be 50 monkeys present. And present they are, with the tangerine-orange ruff of the Golden Lion Tamarin and the black-capped spider monkey’s wizened face. Eire looks around her in wonder and walks away, her shoes scuffing the dirt and leaving tiny clouds hanging behind. She, like the monkeys, moves with utter sang-froid. What is the secret to their confidence?
Santa Ana, CA / morning / SAZOO
That Endless Sky Has Captured Me
My head is filled with crowds, milling and claustrophobic. Everywhere I look today I see humanity revealed with embarrassing clarity in all its jealousy, wrinkles, and farts. There is dust, color, and danger in the streets of Albuquerque’s downtown. The public transport creaks down the street and the strange beauty of the city presses on my soul.
I come around a corner and emerge in the shadow of a church and look up, up, up. Up to a sky so blue, so translucent, that it has no end and I can suddenly see myself within the Medieval layers of world, air, heaven. I am an ant in the universe. I am one in thousands and, suddenly and breathtakingly, alone.
Albuquerque, NM / afternoon / Immaculate Conception Church
Reaching For the Clouds
I’ve been coming to Redding for years now, and never visited one of its best sites: Sundial Bridge. Visible from most of the valley, the sharp white needle soars into the sky above the black-bottomed Canadian geese that squawk through the Sacramento River below. We visited on a stormy afternoon. Murky clouds pressed against the spiky treetops and cast iron highlights on the river.
The long green-glass bridge grew slippery as tiny drops fell, while water beaded in my husband’s rich red beard and on my forearm, casting the fine hairs into relief. Laughing teenagers skated on the glass and families ran for cover. Our hearts filling with the serenity of the river and the majesty of the glowing structure, we held hands and wandered about until the bustling world called.
Redding, CA / late afternoon / Sundial Bridge