I walk on a desert road, my feet scraping the dry and rocky gravel, the sun baking my shoulders with its overwhelming warmth, liquid sweat trickling down the crease of my nose and cheek, and gathering on my shirt at my armpits. The sky is open and vast, and the yellow ominous orb is unattainable in its blindness yet is overwhelming every aspect of the landscape. Some rock formations stretch up from the flat earth at the side of the path. Rainbows of earthen colors and patterns within their layers reveal steadfast wisdom of the millennium spent enduring the wearing of the wind and rain. Small green succulents decorate their borders waiting weeks for a steady rainfall and living on the morning dew that secretly moistens the land at dawn and dusk. These are the transition times of this barren landscape. The shape of the earth and the revolving orbs of the sun and moon provide variety, regularity and dependence within their daily cycles; the scenery ever evolving in its subtle almost unnoticeable evolution. Time is on our side.

Here to on this Island in the archipelago nested within the Strait of Juan de Fuca, we are cushioned between western Washington’s mainland, Vancouver Island, and the Olympic Peninsula; its very own descriptive landscape of Madronas, Cedars, Firs, and mossy outcroppings cresting hills surrounded by beaches filled with jewel like pebbles and drift wood from the many trees. I sit here isolated on this sparsely populated Island dreaming of a landscape far away filled with dust, hot sun, red rock and cactus. There are many landscapes that live within my memory and my blood. Genetically I can resonate with the Jungle, the Mountains, Oceans, Plains, Deserts, River Valleys and Canyons. I feel it is all here with me in this moment. As a planet we are connected and we can reach out and be aware of her majesty simply within our dreams. I crave to visit these many scenes and camp and travel.

Atop a Mountain I am surrounded by meadows of wildflowers and distance here seems shrunken by my desire to cross the land by foot. I think of the settlers that crested these mountains in their carts, their unexplored majesty stretching far above my head in its granite grandiosity. I curve along the road and hike on the rocky and precipitous paths etched in the miles deep and miles stretching high of rock and wonder.

On the ocean I look out for miles to another world hidden beneath her depths. The waves hypnotically and forcefully smash on the sands, a small ripple and expression of the vast and enormous body of water and salt that teems with life; plant based, mammal and fish. Swimming in her waters I feel the strong pull of her currents and tides. These tendencies and powers help carve and describe the weather patterns of the planet, bringing rain to the desserts, snow to the mountains, and winds to the shores of these Islands. An amazing work of art and science, and still inside of us reside all of our dreams, thoughts, expressions, philosophies and prayers. So many elements beyond the physical reside here on Earth. We connect to the stars and other planets, a person far away through the communal subconscious, or by expressing love to our animals that live close to us. Love is a part of this grand spectacle. I am not sure how it fits, but it must be the essence that enters and drifts through all of it.

I am grateful for these memories and dreams of our planet mother and her beauty. I crave to communicate with her by gazing upon the miracles of daily existence of the natural life and wonder that exists here all around me and every day. Near or far I can connect to her exquisiteness and feel the love and essence that runs through it all.