Life… flowing in and out… Sedona, Arizona
I was struggling to breathe looking at the scorching 110-degrees Sun right above my head in the Sedona, Arizona desert. I had to conserve the last sip of water, I had 30 more minutes to hike to reach my car. The problem was, I could feel my heart struggling to pump with every step I took. If I faint, there probably wouldn’t be anyone to notice for a few days unless some hiker shows up. I have never hiked in hot dry desert weather before, I underestimated the heat. I sat under a tree and closed my eyes. I could rest, but every minute I delayed, I would soon need to empty that last sip. After that, it might only be a few minutes before dehydration kicks in. Once I start feeling giddy, probably that would be it.
The magnificent spiritual energy of Sedona probably saved me. I breathed slowly, meditated under a tree, moved a little, sat again, breathed, and moved. I realized it’s extremely difficult to move in the desert wilderness, the heat sucks every drop of energy off of us. There was no cell phone reception, but I used its GPS for general direction. I kept hiking North after a fork, but the GPS direction pointed South. Did I take the wrong fork? Every minute I delayed, I was moving closer to fainting. I continued in the direction I was moving, the other fork “just didn’t feel right”. I trusted my guts like I always did, whether in the streets of Istanbul or the Alaskan wilderness. I slowly dragged myself, trod inch by inch, and finally spotted my car at a distance. I half expected to faint anywhere along the way. Oh my God! Heaven was not anywhere above, it was right there when I sat inside the car and switched the AC on. I could literally hear my heart pounding.
I played “Enigma – Temple of Love”, pushed the seat back, with full AC, still breathing heavily, I sipped water from the bigger can I had in my car, closed my eyes, and felt life flowing back into my body.
I realized as humans we constantly suck energy. We suck energy from oxygen, suck the energy out of plants in the form of food, and suck energy off of people in the form of anger and hatred. Unfortunately, that’s the way we are. The day we stop sucking, we stop living. Probably we must appreciate everything on the planet that’s constantly giving us and keeping us alive. And we constantly repay the debt by destroying the trees that give us oxygen, killing the cows that give us milk, polluting the water that quenches thirst, and destroying each other physically and emotionally.
Every time I saw a tree and sat under it, I felt my life slowly flowing into me. It was almost like the trees embraced me with oxygen and shade to keep me alive. Why does it have to come down to the desert heat and thirst for me to appreciate what I have? The problem is, we are too comfortable and too lazy to appreciate anything. Almost like zombies.
