Going Home again

Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.

Terry Pratchett

my last desert hike

I stumbled on a ruin

crumbling into dust

and realized I was ready to go home

home where water flows freely

where spring blossoms riot - bursting through their skins

where narcissus is already in full bloom

where the forest floor fills with ferns

where squirrels sneak up to steal suet

where the silky tulips glisten

and silent mallards swim

where lily of the valley is wet with dew

solitary tree on the edge of the dunes, overlooking the channel

and a single tree keeps vigil over the grassy dune.

Where we love is home - home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

I loved the magic of Joshua Tree, but I am so happy to be back home. I am grateful that you are here with me.

Joshua Tree

I see my path, but I don't know where it leads.

Rosalia de Castro

View of the Peaks from Panorama Loop Trail

I only had a few days in Joshua Tree, but I realized quickly that even a few months wouldn’t be long enough to see the entire park. There terrain is so widely varied and it’s an enormous place.

You have to be so careful here. The sun and the wind make carrying water and using sun protection absolutely vital.

Joshua Trees Silhouetted at Dawn near my campsite

Rock formations, etched by water over time have taken on sculpted and sometimes eerie shapes.

The urge to climb and scramble over the rocks is irresistible. It’s like a giant rock garden in some places.

Some climbers are even more daring. These three climbers belayed for each other to climb the giant Intersection Rock.

From below it’s hard to figure out what he’s holding on to.

Almost There - I was relieved to see him reach the top where his friend waited for him!

Profile of Joshua Tree on the face of the setting moon

My favorite times here were in the dark - evening and early morning. The air was cold, but the skies were clear and the silhouettes of the Joshua tree against the skies were magical. I got up early one morning to watch the moon set, and afterwards get some pictures of the starry sky before sunrise.

Those who arrive at the end of the journey are not those who began. T. S. Eliot

Thank you for being here!

Reading Rilke in Joshua tree

Live your questions now, and perhaps even without knowing it, you will live along some distant day into your answers.

Rainer Maria Rilke

Entrance
By Rainer Maria Rilke

Whoever you are: in the evening step out
of your room, where you know everything;
yours is the last house before the distant:
whoever you are.
With your eyes, which wearily
just free themselves of the worn-out threshold,
very slowly you raise one black tree
and set it against the sky: slender, alone.
And you’ve made the world. And it’s immense
and like a word ripening in silence.
And as your will reaches for its meaning,
tenderly your eyes let it go. . .

(Translation from The Poetry of Rilke, by Edward Snow)

When I read this poem by Rilke, it evoked my feelings about being in Joshua Tree in the dark with the silhouettes of trees, black and twisted against the sky, feeling like I was at the edge of everything.

I was in California for a week visiting friends and camping at Joshua Tree . I’m a little jet lagged, but I’m so happy I got to visit Joshua Tree finally - I’ll write more about the trip next week.

Thank you for being here.

Rhoda Lewis

Photo Journal

Going Home again

Joshua Tree

Reading Rilke in Joshua tree