Day 35 Monument Valley

During my time as teacher on the rez, I experienced all sorts of alienation, fear, and loneliness. It was a time of self-reliance and inner growth. I was tested and teased by the crazy Navajo kids. We all were at Rough Rock. One of my coping skills was to go to nowhere places and hike and stare and think. The magnitude and vastness of the enchanted southwest is a spiritual experience, just to be there fills your soul. Many times I would go out into the mesas and get lost in random slot canyons. In fact, the background that you see on the home page is a slot canyon in Rough Rock. The most magnificent enchanted place for spiritual healing is sacred Monument Valley. For those of you who have never been there, you actually have. You see the two buttes that you see when you enter this sacred Navajoland(the Mittens), is Hollywoods signature shot of the west. They have been used in all sorts of movies that I can't even name. I do know one though, it was in box offices in '69, Easy Rider with Dennis Hopper & Peter Fonda. Marlboro also advertises with the mittens. On this particular day, the mittens stood there in a cloudless sky bright blue sky. Erick was at the helm of the Phalcon as we drove throughout valley. It was awesome. Lila & Nancy were in Caloy, Erick's '86 burgundy Nissan station wagon. Nancy had never been to the southwest, and she kept gawking in awestruck ways. This is very typical for first-timers in the southwest.