Abraham Lincoln said “And in the end, it is not the years in your Life that counts. It is your Life in your years”

It is raining this evening, the cool breeze has seemingly finally arrived, yesterday was 119 in the sun. Thunder is profound right now, coming through not your typical rainy sky, but as behind it all, in glimpse, the sun is setting for the night, it is of an orangey cast with it’s curtains of grays moving on it’s path. The sounds of power and it’s sights are so present right now, and yet, I feel a friendliness unlike other times when such weather has also been upon us throughout other spaces. Here and there a patch of true blue tries to make an appearance, even if so brief for an instant before being enveloped again into the shadows. I feel the electricity in the air, I can almost taste it’s coppery smell mixed with that scent of Earth wet as it’s ceiling comes down and up, curtain calls for more but never the same.

It is for me, to say the least, as this “Oasis” had never welcomed us in this fashion. Day after day in past times all was always so picture perfect, so ideal that I don’t even think I had ever given any second thought to a weather going stray. Why is it then I am finding some gentleness into all of this surrounding since our arrival, even if being subjected to some temper from Mother Nature, not quite allowing us to roam around as freely as we use to. Could it be that my own tolerance toward Life has in itself increased as I find a compassion toward my days as being of a higher stage to live on?

The night has passed by us, it turned out it was the Mother of all storms yesterday. The radar was showing the biggest red, bright red blob exactly upon us, luckily moving northeast, slowly lingering for it flooded just about everything around here. The day had been fine, we had even taken a ride to Terlingua to purchase a new item called a rake to prepare the ground for a canvas tent given to us by “Montana Canvas Tents” in Belgrade, near by a past base camp. I don’t think that we really need it, but facing west it will be a new covered dwelling that will also harbor Friends passing by, if they ever find us.

My Friend Ryan had invited us to ride with him in his Mule, one of those covered 4×4 ATV’s looking as a cross between a golf cart and a mini pick up truck with windshield and a flat bed in the rear. The afternoon passed as it was time to join him, I was hesitant about our ride seeing a storm develop, he does not have a telephone or Internet and so we decided to take a ride there anyhow. Ah! Youth and inexperience. I was so much subjected to it through Lance as Ryan is 27 and would not hear my words about this incoming storm and the threat of flash floods. I was not at my best, I read the weather too well, it was an uncomfortable ride from the inside of my thoughts not wanting to be on the path of a wall of water gushing down Terlingua Creek as the rain had started.

His excitement to show me this back country so few have had a chance to ride into was at it’s peak, even if I often spoken reassured him that we will be here for a while, there will be much time to explore what we could not see today. But it was a bit further… let’s go a bit further… Some roads had already vanished from previous rains and tire tracks let me know that he had been here before, as amazingly this vehicle could cover any ground, for sure places Old Faithful could not even dream getting near or even myself walk through. A perfect vehicle for Photography, having the ability to be within spaces impossible for others. The ride was bumpy… youth like speed! 4×4 to me is crawling most of the time, as there is a pleasure to cross where others cannot, only at however slow speeds. My body feels broken today as it’s joints seem to have become loose needing time to set back in their previous positions.

Finally under my insistence we headed back, different roads, smoother, but away from the storm, camera tucked in my T shirt, all of myself slowly getting soaked and now thinking if I would even make it back myself to “The Oasis”. A quick good bye, a fast “Thank You”… let’s do this again (!!!) and on we went after a bit of trouble with Spirit who suddenly, Mr Spirit did not want to get into his car and get wet. Within half an hour of a good rain, the roads here get slick as the surface of a frozen Lake, there is no even any worth trying to navigate on them. Ahead of the center of the storm that window of opportunity was still open and we made it back just in time, finally witnessing the most incredible show of downpour, lightning and thunder ever.

Tonight is a different story, a different chapter written in those skies. It is as the curtain dropped and raised again on a scene more familiar. The Moon is still hidden away, the billions of Stars forming a ceiling where the Milky Way is again separating into two avenues. The “gentleness” of Mother Nature is back with us, just as the fragility of Life we never cease to experience, it’s scales swaying back and forth as the prevalent winds so often whispering upon us here at “The Oasis”.

Till next time…

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Thank you and be well…

Ara & Spirit

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 8th, 2009 at 8:34 pm and is filed under travel, spirituality, pit bull, sidecar, motorcycle, cooking, photography, riding, homeless. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.