In June, we had an opportunity to return to Tucson, AZ and connect with friends for the weekend. It was an amazing space to return to our roots, connect with others, step into service, and reminders both of where we came from and the road we are travelling.
Barton and I met in Tucson, AZ when he was in school there 16 years ago. We both trained in the martial arts, and in Native American traditional teachings. We met at an informal training seminar at a mutual friend’s house, a quick hello-good-bye. I never would expected how meeting Barton would have changed my life in a whole new direction.
We had not been back to Arizona since Barton graduated college and were married. It was like a lifetime ago! Nothing had changed and everything had changed.
We walked down 4th avenue as Barton reminisced about what shops were still there, and which ones had moved. In the same way we remembered the experiences of spiritual service that brought us together.
That evening we celebrated 15 years of marriage.
Our traditional wedding.
What I came to honor most about Barton in his tenacity to walk his own path. I am only now starting to find mine. My lifetime, I have been caught up in what other people thought, how other people saw the world, I lived other people’s dreams and tried to avoid their fears. I am steeped in a family history of suffering, of taking on suffering, and in many cases an addiction to suffering.
And what is the new path that is being created. One of integration, one of beauty, of divine honoring. Creating supports so that we do not have to suffer. Steeped in the joy. So that others are lifted.
And we see how our joy and love together opens up those we meet and connect with.
While we were there, Barton and P.J. took me up Mount Lemmon, with phenomenal conversation and laughter. I loved steeping in the space of land and air, to feel so open and free. When I simmer in these spaces, I find stillness within self. A quiet center. Immersed in beauty.
At one pull off, Barton and I went onto the rocks. I lifted my airs in air, standing on rocks, touching the sky. Heart open.
Heart free.
Our last day of the trip, on our way to the Phoenix airport, we drove through Gates Pass and stopped at the Arizona Desert Museum.
I had never seen so many cactus, tiny flower blossoms a splash of color through the prickly pine needles. Space. Freedom. Heart soaring.
As we drove through the mountains, I was amazed at every curve what picturesque dessert imagery arrived.
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