Anza-Borrego and the desert soul (soil)

i enjoy desert hikes in the night. the landscape & fauna take on a completely different character. the quiet, the darkness, and the enormity of the space swallow you up. we humans often feel like aliens, as if we were put on this earth, a separate from, forced to survive the inhospitable. the desert represents that essence well. it is a faulty, modern feeling of course. we are as much part of the earth, as the earth is part of us. 30k years ago, a human walked on this very part of the earth, not feeling as distant to the soil (aridisols) as we do know. of course, this is a presumption, but, it's a bet i'd be willing to make.

below is the night study (anza-borrego 03.05.18 - 10:30pm)

The Beauty of The Desert

I went out to Joshua Tree several days ago. I've been there many times in the past few years but, surprisingly, while it was never too far away from where I have been mostly living in my adult life, it took me many years to actually make plans and follow through. From that point on, I try to make it out into the desert whenever feasible. Both an escape, and more importantly, a meditation. 

Joshua Tree is a famous place. U2 named an album that went multi-platinum after the tree that gives a name to the location (The Joshua Tree). I just learned that Brian Eno produced the album. Feels like something I "should of" known. "Should of" of course is one of the most insidious utterances in the English language so beware. It feels appropriate here though. 

I went with some old friends who I rarely see. We hiked under the full moon. It's probably not advisable to go hiking into the Southern US desert at night (especially when you don't know what the hell you're doing), but, the once ever so often Blue Moon lit up the landscape in a way that was, to say the least, surreal. 

I'm sure I saw a Desert Bobcat running swiftly across the landscape, but the rest of the party won't corroborate the story. Finding truth is similar. You see it, but you're not 100% because you're alone in finding it. A quality of faith reassembles the partial vision into totality.