It’s been hard to concentrate on this blog since I returned
from Utah.  Really hard.  While the trip, like
any trip with a 9 year old, was not without its aggravations, being immersed in
such powerful, beautiful and peaceful land was a kind of spiritual balm.  I set aside thinking about politics and
keeping up with the daily news, in favor of immersing myself in the energies of
sky and stone, river and rain, juniper and pine, rain and snow.  Washington, DC, seemed on another planet,
as energetically it is.  Even Pagan
personalities, politics, and philosophy seemed far off compared to hiking
across slick rock benches to gaze at soaring arches or looking down and up and
out from atop sheer canyon walls or watching clouds and snow flurries caress the La Salles. 
Letting the energy of the land sweep through me, healing and nourishing.  The high Southwest has always caused my
soul to soar.

Returning was a kind of culture shock.  It was wonderful to see my friends and
not so wonderful to be back in what passes for civilization.  

I’d like to become a hermit, but I care about people too
much. I’d miss my friends and get lonely. If I could take my friends with me I’d never come back. 

But for some reason they have lives of their own. 

So here I am.  But I’m sure sympathetic to Ed Abbey.

I have all these notes I made mostly immediately upon
returning, notes on Las Vegas, America, and the canyon country, notes on
friendly Mormons and how time changes on the trail and then energy of the
land.  Eventually more of them will
get into this blog. But oddly while I’ve been writing as much or more than
ever, it has not been about current events, Pagan or otherwise.  It’s been on bigger themes, ones that
provide the context through which we look at daily events. 

I needed to step back from things to find the time to get a
breath, separate myself from the mix of misery, pain, and despair that so often
seems the only sane response to current events.  My trip certainly helped me do that, but A Pagan’s Blog has
not been the beneficiary so far.