A “Riddle” for You

What has four legs, and two heads, and one heart?

 

Here’s a clue…

               Us…

                                            I am what I am

Standing in Awe and Wonderment

There is a point where nothing exists… Save awe and wonderment… 

          I am what I am

“We live by faith… not by sight”

This photo was taken on Hwy. 89, heading north, just past the junction of Hwy. 160… Flying by at 60 mph…

It’s a corn field on the Navajo reservation. Sorry it’s so blurry… But it is clear enough that you can see the individual clusters of corn plants growing.

There are no water lines to the field… no way to irrigate. Hauling water is, at best, not worth the effort. All the tender of the garden has to rely on is rainfall… In the middle of the desert.

One has to believe that when the seeds are planted, they will break through the earth and grow. There can be no doubt, or it would be pointless endeavor. Then after the tender shoots appear, one must truly believe that life giving water will be given to sustain the growth of the corn.

It may not look like much now, but in a month or so it will be providing nourishing sustenance for the ones who walked by faith all summer to see it through.

It is no easy thing to do, this walking by faith and not by sight… We always want to see the end result before the beginning of something we attempt to do. It is hard to begin an unknown… something that we can’t see… We tend to be frozen in time while we stand to the side and idle. 

There are certain promises that have been made to the people of the earth by the Long Life Happiness One that can make the journey a lot more relaxing…

“A seed cannot become a ear of corn until it first dies and is buried, then it returns a hundred fold”

This promise tells me many things. First of all, it is an action phrase. Meaning that something has to be done. And if those things are done, the other things will occur.

Planting… Watering… Harvesting… Two out of the three are the things that we do. The third  is where the faith thing comes into be.

See it is the Long Life Happiness One Whose Ways Are Beautiful that brings the water, and causes the sun to shine… That’s the hard part… having faith enough to put into action something that you have no idea about the result…

Dry land farming in my mind has got to be the most faith testing endeavor that one could do… Faith to last you through the winter…

Just a little further down the road, this little house… Nothing to do with the cornfield… Just thought it was another lesson about building your house of stone… but that’s another day…

These photos depict a way of life that says a lot about the people that live it… Your whole existence depends upon faith in action… Easy to see that if you don’t work you don’t eat… but that work is done with faith and beauty… And the whole process brings to fruition the circle of life…

Live, love, work, play, and walk in beauty…

 

                                                 I am what I am

The adventures of a Gypsy and a Garbage Man…

Another weekend arrived and that was our queue… Loaded up the truck and headed down the hill for another adventure and get some shopping done while we were at it.

We got to the Visitors Center, Picked up my jr ranger book, of course, and headed out side to look around…

The first person I met was this guy… He was pretty silent but it was obvious he liked the attention…

Here he is getting his head scratched… He stood there real still while I scratched behind his horns…

The next was this little pony in disguise… maybe he was wanted for something… I didn’t ask… We then looked around a bit at the bunk houses

This is one of them, east I believe…

Then we went to the “Fortress” proper… This was built directly over a natural spring…

Inside view of the front door… “Windsor Castle” is it’s name… Established in 1870 as a Mormon Tithing Ranch. Butter, cheese, and cattle were taken to St. George, UT. Also it was used for the protection of the polygamists from the federal marshals…

Out of everything in the house, the coolest thing was this cup made so you wouldn’t dip your mustache in your hot tea…

The next person we ran across was this duck… All he said was that his name was not “Daffy”…

Here is a reconstruction of a Piute dwelling… Almost looks like a sweat lodge…

Oh yea, getting sworn in for the third time as a jr ranger… This time they snuck in the part about eating all my veggies and cleaning my room…

The badge is what sets it off, don’t you think?

On the way home we had some tricky driving… But we got through it all just fine…

And so the sun set on yet another adventure for our fearless duo… Gaelyn took all the pictures and I did all the driving…Check out the video she took of us crossing an over flowing wash. So I think on our next days off we’ll spin the wheel… Round, round she goes, where she stops, nobody knows!

I am what I am

A trip with a Gypsy… or… I love this teepee livin’ !

The trip to Cedar Breaks wasn't all bad and no good… Referring to the “Gnome Incident”… The scenery was awesome!

 

The way the rocks had eroded over time lets you stand there for a while with your mouth open in awe before you even think about getting your camera out…

 

The mountain in the back ground is Brian Head… Gealyn is the photographer on all the photos here… She posted on Brian Head and you can see it HERE…

We saw a lot of flowers there. My favorite though by far were the Columbine…

This Mountain Bluebell is really nice too!

One of the times where I was standing… Just looking…

While we were there, I started working on my Jr. Ranger book. It’s fun and you get to act like your smarter than a fifth grader…

Getting my book signed by Ranger Brandon. He gave a Ranger Talk about lightning. I thought he did a great job!

Getting sworn in… Check out the Ranger… Good times! He was having as much fun as I was…

 

So after a wonderful time at the visitors center with some great people, we went up there…

To see this… Cedar Breaks from the look out at Brian Head…

And this is the hole that the Gnome Guy was climbing in and out of…

This is the best hotel on earth! It’s got wheels and it can go where ever you want, almost…

After we left Brian Head we headed into the forest to look for a spot to camp for the night… That’s when we were met by at least 2000 sheep… They just kept coming and coming… They were led by two white dogs, and followed up my two black and white dogs and two cowboys, or sheep herders should I say. Quite a responsible job actually…

It was a wonderful day and we got to enjoy a wonderful sunset at the end of it!

I would like to thank my sweetie Gaelyn for showing me new places that I would never have seen otherwise… And also for her loving kindness…

                                                                I am what I am

Gnome guy “Breaks Free!”

On my days off, Gaelyn and I went up to Cedar Breaks, and had a wonderful time! I got another Jr. Ranger badge, and all things were beautiful… We had seen some amazing things… I’m sure that even Gnome Guy, “Ollie”, was having a blast even though he was in the truck the whole time we were there until we went up to Brian’s Head look out.

We had got there and “Ollie” was rearing to go! He didn’t even have any trouble breathing at 11,000 feet above sea level. He just ran around and seemed like he was very pleased to finally be some place where the air wasn’t so thick.

Several times we had to tell him to get back from the edge, as he was climbing in and around all the rocks that hung off the side of the mountain… He was jumping through this hole he is standing in front of, and popping up un the other side of the rock. Laughing the whole time!

Here we are at the look out building… From here you can almost see to the ends of the Earth! We posed for a couple of snap shots and off he went to explore… I realized that I didn’t bring my camera and started back to the truck. The photos you are about to see are not for the squeamish…

   When I was almost to the truck I heard a loud crash and Gaelyn saying in a loud panicky voice, “Oh No!”

 

This is the last picture of “Ollie”… He was up on the wall as he is always doing and Gaelyn said that he started dancing some kind of funny little dance and the wind just picked him up off his feet and…

CRASH!!! This is what was left of him after he was showing off and got blown off the wall… I felt so bad for Gaelyn because she thought I would blame her for it… That guy was always showing off and I kept telling him that if he didn’t slow down, his folly would be the death of him… He would just laugh and say… “When?”

So the next day, I took “Ollie” to the Zion Over look. If you’ve ever been there, you know how beautiful it is… I laid him on a piece of bark, and said my good byes, and laid him to rest.

I then placed him under a thick bush so the earth can take him back… He was a pretty cool little dude. His sense of humor was a little questionable sometimes, but all in all, he was alright in my book!

Every where we went after that we kept seeing these rather confusing signs along the road…

I wondered about those signs and came to the conclusion that “Ollie” would have said,” No driving? Huh…. Good thing you brought your lob wedge!”

So that’s exactly what I did! I pulled over on to a pullout and busted out my lob wedge! “Ollie” wouldn’t have it any other way! What do you think of the back swing?

Oh yes! Contact! I smacked that ball a good one… Made sure I wasn’t a spot where there were any plants and well, you see… Nice form I think, head down, rotating through… Ahhh, still got it!

Now when I think of friends I’ve lost in the past, I remember them like this awesome bird I caught in flight in front of a rain storm… Flying free from all that would make us mortal…

All of the pictures, except the last were taken by Gaelyn. Don't you think she does a great job? I do!

So I guess the moral of the story is this…

“Don’t go dancing on the wall when the wind is blowing… You might break free!”

   I am what I am

The Face of The Long Life Happiness One Whose Ways Are Beautiful!

It was two days ago that Gaelyn and I stood in the presence of the Almighty… Here is my version of the encounter… We found ourselves at Crazy Jug Point, after a somewhat long and slow ride… But I have to say that it was very beautiful! The forest had many different trees and shrubs and flowers of all kinds. All of which were beautiful. From the tallest of Ponderosas, to the smallest of little blue flowers. Gaelyn has all those pics and I’m sure you all will be seeing them soon. We arrived at our destination after many stops to take pictures, and just to look around. I didn’t even seem to find myself becoming impatient to get where we were going! The views were fantastic! And after awhile, The Lord came and showed off a little in the form of an awesome rain over the canyon…

  This view was really cool from the end of the point…

There was one storm that came by with some lightning… so we just stayed in the camper for a while until it passed… Got pretty windy, but little rain. And of course Talking God had something to say… Maybe an invitation to the spectacle that was about to occur…

The show hade begun… No lightning, just a gentle, female rain. It looked as if the Spirit was washing it’s child…

As the water fell to the earth, a reassurance of the soul could be felt. All will not thirst forever… Through it all, the Light kept shining.

There’s that Geogypsy doing what she loves to do! She has really made a beautiful scene even more so! She fits right in!

The face of the Creator could be seen in every turn of the clouds, and drop of rain…

I didn’t even realize that I had gotten this image until I downloaded it from the card that evening. Can you see the face of Jesus? 

A few moments later, that face had opened up into this hole and the light shined again.

The rain just got more and more spectacular! As it passed right in front of us, it began to do something that was truly amazing.

  A double rainbow appeared in the rain laden sky. Gods promise and covenant with all humanity… The crowning glory of the event we had just witnessed! The second rainbow is a faint copy of the original, a reflection in the water vapor. I figure this because the colors are switched in both, see?

I am so thankful to see that smile! Just makes my millennium!!!

After a while we went inside to eat lunch, that rainbow wasn't going anywhere… In fact it stayed for more than an hour!

After lunch we came out to an eerily awesome sight… The rainbow had taken on an almost physical appearance. It began to look like a tube that you could either walk on or be taken up into… And the rain seemed as if it were coming from the rainbow itself… And believe me, my cheapo little digital camera can’t really show you what it was really like. It was something I had never in my life seen with these eyes of mine. I was blown away with the sheer size of it, and the way it seemed to declare something greater than all things, a name above all names, The name of my friend and brother… Jesus…   

 

                                                                               I am what I am