Laki Neho

The Kayans have a hawk-god, Laki Neho.

I've been seeing this magnificent specimen of Buteo jamaicensis, or Red Tail Hawk, on my property since last fall. A few days ago, I caught him hanging out on my roof and then swooping onto my lawn to snare a mouse in his giant talons. After snapping as many pictures as I could, I decided I had to name him. He's another one of the amazing animals that lives here with me. I like to know what to call my roomates.

Foxy Lady

This is the gorgeous Red Fox that I used to see all the time on my property. She isn't around much anymore, although occasionally, I still see her. Her absence has created a proliferation of rabbits in my neighborhood. They're everywhere. Very cute, but I miss the fox.

Her and I got very used to seeing each other. I was raking the lawn once, creating small piles of thatch all over the place. The Red Fox and her partner came around and started running through the piles, like they were playing a game. Then, they just sat down on my lawn and hung out while I raked. They were no more than 50 feet from me. I felt like they were my pets for the afternoon. It was one of the most incredible encounters with wildlife I've ever experienced. Another time, I came home late one night to find her and the whole family of baby foxes just sitting in the middle of my driveway. The cubs (is that what you call them?) just sat there and didn't move, even as my car got close. I had to get out of my vehicle and shoo them away to get my car up the driveway.

Often times, I am humbled by the presence of wildlife and I feel less like an owner of property and more like a co-tenant. I share the property with all the animals that also call this place home, or at least a bitchin' place to hang.

Grand Rainbow

As if the Grand Canyon wasn't breathtaking enough, Ma Nature threw in a rainbow on the morning of August 1, 2005. I drove to the South Rim from Flagstaff, waking up at 2 am to be there by sunrise. But there wasn't much of a sunrise because it was cloudy with periods of rain. When the rain broke later that morning, however, I was rewarded with this spectacular scene. I went there for something and I got something else just as magnificent. How often does that happen to us if we honestly put ourselves out there and remain open to what the universe gives us?

"Life is what happens to us while we're making other plans."

"Grand" Canyon Isn't Enough

       I've been to the Grand Canyon twice. If you've never been, I implore you to put it on your "things to see before I die" list. No amount of hype would be too much, and no amount of superfluous adjectives would be adequate to convey the grandeur of the place. In fact, the word "Grand" itself falls pathetically short. That's like describing the most powerful orgasm of your life as "okay". But I guess it's the best we can do.
         My dad said that the only place he’d ever been that lived up to the hype were the pyramids at Giza. He never made it to the Grand Canyon, but he would have had to add it to his list. When I’m there, I just stare silently and motionless for what feels like hours, trying to absorb what I’m seeing. It’s literally a completely overwhelming visual experience. Being an astronomy buff, I imagine the Grand Canyon’s astronomical counterpart would be viewing the entire Milky Way galaxy from some planet that lies just outside of it. The effect would be mesmerizing, and just like this earthy equivalent, one could just look at it for hours on end; never getting tired of the view, completely spellbound by something so magnificent that our very beings are so overwhelmed with rapture that we loose all sense of self, all sense of time, all sense of anything and everything.
         Maybe that’s what it is to be one with the universe, one with god, one with everything. And if we can find it in the Grand Canyon, we can find it plenty of other places here too. I guess if you’re really connected, you can find it in anything, and truly live a life at one with all creation.

Sunset Reflections

I love how the sky is inversely reflected in the subtle ripples of the water here. The deep blue at the top of the sky is on the bottom of the reflected image, while the oranges, reds, and yellows of the setting sun are seen at the top. Exactly reversed from the image we see in the sky.