And cold weather befalls us in these parts. It seems like, despite the gradual shift in temperatures over the past month, this weekend saw a huge difference. In fact, we even got snow in high places. And believe me, in these parts, that is good news. But I digress.
Probably the biggest accomplishment in my personal life this week was finally getting my photo library sorted out! Well, mostly, anyway. Still have to go through and do a little fine tuning here and there- but sorting 6,000-ish photos is a HECK of a better time than sorting like 30,000! And a good portion of them are likely enough to just be memes and screenshots, so that should make it all the easier.
Speaking of photos, I got to go on quite a fun adventure, this weekend. What's more, I'd call it a very unique and hard-to-replicate adventure, due to the circumstances. I, my brother, my father and his wife all got together in a couple of vehicles and drove out to City of Rocks in Idaho. If you've never heard of it, I don't blame you, it's certainly nowhere near as popular as other features like Yellowstone, Yosemite, etc. In fact, the name alone of this place almost merits a "well, what were you expecting?" kind of reaction, doesn't it? Well then, I'm here to say, don't be fooled!
Oh, don't get me wrong, the main majority of the landscapes itself is fairly... Idaho. But that's only in between the views. There are some magnificent and fascinating structures here. I suppose, if I had to describe it, the best similarity I could pull is saying, have you ever been to Goblin Valley in Utah? It's kind of like that, but if the landscape was hilly and mountainous, rather than red rock. Honestly, it's well worth a visit at least once, in my opinion. But I've veered away from my point, again.
Our particular visit was unique for a couple of reasons. The first? I will put out a wager that most folks to who go to city of rocks view it in fairly mild or normal weather. For us? Like I said, this weekend brought some cold temperatures, and in part, that was due to a storm that rolled into this region. As such, our drive was mainly in rains and mists... well, at least the first part of it was. And that just made all of the features we looked at all the more mystical and amazing! The downside, of course, was that we couldn't see quite everything around; but that only made the experience all the more mysterious and neat, in a way!
Now, I mentioned it rained for the first part. That rain quickly turned to snow, as we were rolling through these back hills, cut off from civilization, in what seemed to be a magical landscape almost like no other. Once again, if I had to draw comparisons, here, in my imagination, it seems halfway similar to the landscapes I picture the kids in C. S. Lewis' The Silver Chair traveled through. Honestly, short of showing you pictures of what I saw, I feel like there's no easy way to describe how beautiful it was.
On that note, I do, soon intend to include pictures with these blogs... I'm finally getting certain things checked off of my long to-do list, so I may well get around to it before Christmas, if I'm lucky. And there will also be a media share to my little photography hobby I'll post- nothing fancy, mind you- I have no DSLR camera, just a fairly good phone camera, but I think you'll agree that, while maybe no masterpieces, I've been lucky enough to capture some beautiful moments in time, here and there. But in good time.
My thoughts this weekend, aside from "Wow, dang that's beautiful!" have also pondered back to some memories I had halfway forgotten. They are far too long and detailed to even begin to mention in this blog; suffice to say, I remembered some pretty insane but true stories that were told me by a friend from some years ago, now. Deciding that the stories were too important to let be forgotten by time, I wrote them down with what memory I still retained of them. I also penned down what I felt was the most important points to gleam from each one. One of those points, perhaps I'll share here. Although relating the story seems like it would obviously help relate the point, here, I will forbear, because there's more background you would have to know before knowing the story alone. Nonetheless, here is that thought.
"Whatever foolish choices we make in life, there is no need to remain in those moments. As a simple but powerful old adage goes, "What's done is done". You can't change your past- nor should you. And in a way, you can't change your future. What you can change is the present. As one of my favorite lyrics goes, "There is no journey gone so far- so far we cannot stop and change direction." And how true it is, right? You may have done horrible, terrible things in your life. And quite likely, horrible, terrible things have happened to you in your life. And trauma is such a terrible thing, because it makes us want to keep living in those events as a defense mechanism. But as we are able to escape that- well, I have to insert another quote, here, from Brennan Manning, a Catholic Priest: ". . . Be honest about [your] own beauty and brokenness, and the beautiful and broken one will make himself known to our neighbors through the chinks in our armor- and theirs". Isn't it ironic? Brokenness is what makes us strong, and is where we begin and continue to grow and progress in our journeys. And each of us has our own beauty and brokenness- just like the many millions and billions of countless rocks that can be seen anywhere in the beautiful and vast landscapes of Southern Utah. Each rock is, in its own way, very broken- and yet possesses a beauty very unique to itself. Sometimes this is easily visible in features like Delicate Arch- and sometimes it's very remote, but very beautiful like a small, hidden paradise tucked away far into a gorge in the desert. The point is, don't let darkness from the past be the determining factor in where you want to go now."
So, there you have it. Do not let your past pain determine who you are now- and don't mistake that with the idea of just forgetting about past trauma. I believe acknowledging those past events is very quintessential to confronting our true selves. To ignore and try to push away those things only makes us run further away from the truth. The sooner we can accept that what has happened is done, we have the ability and power to control ourselves more than ever before. I know that's for for myself, at least.
What past dark days and evil memories do you have tucked away? For many I know, there is no shortage of them. Confront yourself this week and see what feelings you have been keeping bottled up and tucked away, and good luck in embracing your own, true self. Until next week, see ya!