Twinkling of an Eye

Below is one of the most beautiful metaphors I've found in literature relating to our perception of life on earth and our dream to see what lies beyond. I fell in love with the beauty of this passage in graduate school while taking an Anglo Saxon literature class. It's amazing that a millenium and a half later, we still use nature to ponder our journey through life in much the same way. While researching this passage to compare my translation with others, I noted that it is often used by atheists and agnostics (who leave out the last statement). This was not its intent. It is recorded because this is when Northumbria and his noblemen first heard of Christian doctrine and realized that these new ideas might give them perspective and allow them to see beyond the life that was as short as a twinkling of an eye. (Skull Arch, Fiery Furnance, Arches National Park)
“This present man’s life on earth is companion to the time that is unknown: as if you sit at a banquet with your noble men, and it rains and snows and storms outside. Then a sparrow flies through the house that comes in through one door, and departs through the other. So he, in that time he was inside, was not touched by the winter storm but was like a twinkling of an eye for a space of time, that comes from winter back into winter. As this man’s life as a middle space of time appears, that what comes before until what follows after we cannot know. Therefore if this new doctrine brings anything knowing and suitable, thus it is worthwhile that we follow there.” --Venerable Bede, translated from Anglo Saxon by Hegemony

Chesler Park

"The wind will not stop. Gusts of sand swirl before me, stinging my face. But there is still too much to see and marvel at, the world very much alive in the bright light and wind, exultant with the fever of spring, the delight of morning. Strolling on, it seems to me that the strangeness and wonder of existence are emphasized here, in the desert, by the comparative sparsity of the flora and fauna: life not crowded upon life as in other places, but scattered abroad in spareness and simplicity, with a generous gift of space for each herb and bush and tree, each stem of grass, so that the living organism stands out bold and brave and vivid against the lifeless sand and barren rock. The extreme clarity of the desert light is equaled by the extreme individuation of desert life-forms. Love flowers best in openness and freedom." --Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire

These are photos of our March 2005 trip to Chesler Park and Druid Arch in the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park. Our hike covered 14.5 miles.

The rim of Elephant Canyon. We made our decent into the canyon to reach Druid Arch.

Inside Elephant Canyon there is a dry, rocky riverbed that leads up to Druid Arch.





Druid Arch is a massive structure.

Beautiful cliffs of Mesa sandstone on the way to Chesler Park.

Chesler Park is a beautiful desert meadow.

Welcome

"By this time, like one who had set out on his way by night, and travelled through a region of smooth or idle dreams, our history now arrives on the confines, where daylight and truth meet us with a clear dawn, representing to our view, though at a far distance, true colours and shapes." --John Milton

Welcome to The Venue.
(Bristlecone Pine Overlook, near Cedar City, Utah)