on the path…Joshua Tree pics explained pt 2
Hello everyone. Welcome to the second installment of the picture explanations from Joshua Tree.
8. This is the little green gourd Bella found to rub on her leg after she fell on the ‘hedgehog cactus.’ We actually found it the previous day, at our first stop right inside Joshua Tree.
Teresa had sat Bella on the tailgate of the car and was attempting to apply some first aid cream after plucking out the thorns. Bella would scream no, no, it hurts, it hurts. While Teresa is working on her leg, Bella reached for this little green gourd and held it to her leg She went from blood curdling screams to sniffling. We were all amazed at this kids reseilence. But afterall she is the kind that walks up to her father and says, “Dangerous Ego, DANGEROUS. She’s 3 and quotes Eckhart Tolle.
9. I was trying to get a picture of the clouds in a moving car. I actually have a better picture than this of little fluffy clouds -(a song by the orb that samples Pat Metheny).
by chance I got the top of a Joshua Tree.
10. Here they are. Finally, right? Two Joshua trees with the sun setting behind them. Again in the moving car. Here you can see these are really compact and stocky trees. After I saw just one I started thinking how odd it looked in the middle of the desert. The immediate thought was, “how does a tree grow in the desert.” Whcih quickly turned into, “what force created these rock formations?” It was humbling when I stopped and really thought about it. From what I understand this is the only place where these trees exist- where the Mojave and Colorado desert meet. Somebody double check me on that.
11.Sunset at “Keys View” this is the lookout with Palm Springs and the San Andreas fault at the bottom. The Sunset was serene and was full of more colour than I captured here. Fortunately, there were only a few people up there. Some European tourists and their girlfriends. I noticed I have to be careful at times like these; otherwise, I spend the whole time snapping pictures and realize I spent mysunse experience with my camera instead. This night I took a few pictures and found a nice quiet rock to view the shifting colours. The wind would occasionally blow pretty hard; just about the time I had decided to settle in with the little daylight left and meditate. A good time to practice a quiet mind with the wind stirring up. About 5 minutes later Tim came up to me and said, “We don’t want to rush you but Bella’s crashing and we need to get back.”
She was already loaded up in her car seat still awake. We left the ipod off and fell silent as we drove back. Shortly into our trip Teresa whispered, “she’s out” We all continued in silence and occassional whispers. Basically we were really glad to have shared the day together and were collectively grateful.
Well, I’ll end it there.
Thanks for checking in.
Stephen A. Thomas