Empowering Your Mind

Sedona is still a small town. It’s not uncommon to bump into someone you know, whether it’s at the Post Office, grocery store, or an art opening. It’s especially true when you have interests in common and attend an event concerning that activity. This was especially true for me during the 2nd annual Sedona Book Fest.

On Friday, Jeff and I attended their afternoon workshops. The first one was on “It’s Easy To Publish Your Book” with Richard and Sharon Hooper of Sanctuary Publications and Wib and Jane Middleton of Thunder Mountain Design.

The only 2 chairs available when we got there just happened to be beside my original writing teacher, Bennie Blake. She’s no longer teaching, but is still editing manuscripts. It’s always such a joy to run into her. The last time was at a Jerome Art Walk a few months ago.

I greeted a couple of other people I knew. One of them had been a member of the writer’s group where Jeff and I met. It’s been a long time since I’d seen her. Jeff and I stopped attending the group over a decade ago.

The second workshop was on nonfiction, “What’s So Special About Nonfiction,” with three panelists: Maia Kincaid, Barbara Mayer, and Terri Marie. Maia’s a friend and author of four wonderful books about her communication with animals, plants, insects and the earth. I’ve reviewed two of her four books, and plan to review the third one soon.

The three panelists discussed their writing process and how writers must listen to their muse. One of them said something that sparked a solution to a problem I’ve been wrestling with for a while. It’s always inspiring to be around so much creativity.

On Saturday, Jeff and I went to the Bookfest, with over 60 exhibitors. Again, I saw Bennie, which really wasn’t a surprise. But I also ran into one of the students I knew from her class, Barb Hahn, who now conducts classes in creative writing. I haven’t seen Barb in almost two decades, so it was an unexpected pleasure to bump into her.

One of the exhibitors was the owner of Red Coyote Press and contributor to the anthology “How Not To Survive A Vacation,” Sue Flaig. I’d met her about 18 months ago, when I spoke to an association she belongs to in Tempe, AZ.

In another room, I spotted Ross Hawkins, of the Hummingbird Society. Ross is a professional member of the National Speaker’s Association and belongs to our Arizona Chapter as I do. I was surprised to see him there, but he was representing his wife’s book, “Word Pearls…Seeing Into Meaning.” We chatted about speaking and his favorite topic, hummingbirds. He has some wonderful stories about the antics of these magical creatures.

When I got to Maia’s table, I realized that I knew her editor, Debbie Dobson, who was sitting with Maia. As I said, it’s not unusual to see people you know in Sedona, even when you’re not aware of a close connection. This one was a 2nd “degree of separation” connection.

Over the years, so many people I’ve known have left the area. It was refreshing to reconnect with some of the folks I’ve known who are still here. And it was wonderful to immerse myself in one of the passions that I share with those friends. I look forward to attending the 3rd Annual Sedona Book Fest next year and seeing who else is there.

After we visited Sunset Crater, Jeff and I drove along the loop road towards Wupatki National Monument, a cluster of prehistoric Native American dwellings. As the road rises and falls, and curves around cinder cones, you have a panoramic view of the Vermillion Cliffs, an escarpment to the north. Its pastel pinks and blues shimmer in the distance.

Since we’ve visited the several outlying pueblos before, we focused on the biggest one, Wupatki itself. Around 1100AD, native peoples built these dwellings out of the red rock, and soon had a population of thousands in the surrounding area.

I love how the builders used the huge boulders as back walls for their houses. And they have two ball courts. One has a blowhole, where a cold wind blows from beneath the land through a small hole in the ground. It was prehistoric air conditioning, and I’m sure it was appreciated by the overheated players (or current visitor) on the court.

There’s something so spiritual, peaceful and serene about Wupatki. The red rocks and dwellings, the unobstructed view of the Vermillion Cliffs, the San Francisco Peaks in the distance, all of it calms my soul every time I visit.

Jeff and I recently visited Sunset Crater and Wupatki National Monuments. They’re located north of Flagstaff, on a loop road. Sunset Crater is at the south end and Wupatki is at the north part of the loop. To do them justice, you really need to set aside a full day to enjoy them. We’ve been there several times before, and planned to spend most of our time at Sunset Crater.

First, we visited Sunset Crater’s visitor center, then ate a picnic lunch nearby. The visitor center has some great descriptions of the event that created the volcanic field somewhere around 1040-1100AD.

There are also some great interactive displays. I jumped up and down on a pad that was connected to a seismograph. It showed how my movement created waves just as an earthquake would.

There was also a 3D animated video of how the eruption looked. You could even turn it to view it from various directions. Very cool for someone interested in geology, as I am.

We drove up the loop road, and stopped by Bonito Lava Flow and Lenox Crater. The lava flow looks so alien that the astronauts trained on it before the Moon landing. Sunset Crater is closed to people climbing on it, but not so with Lenox Crater. There’s a steep path to the top of it, which I hiked.

After lots of rests, ½ mile and 300 feet higher, I reached the top. There was a panoramic view of the San Francisco Peaks on one side and the cinder fields on the other. When I hiked down, it felt like ½ the distance.

At Sunset Crater, we walked the 1-mile loop path near the base of the mountain. You walk in and amongst the lava and cinder fields, sometimes dwarfed by the raw black rocks. It’s stark and beautiful and photos can’t do it justice.

The first weekend of this month was a busy one. On Saturday, Jeff and I spent the afternoon in Jerome, AZ, the ghost town near us. We wandered the galleries before their monthly art walk started at 5pm. After that, Jeff was in the gallery with his photographs so he could greet visitors and tell them the back-story of how they were taken.

While he was working, I sat on the gallery’s deck, looking out over the beautiful Verde Valley and Red Rocks of Sedona. I read and watched the shadows crawl across the valley. I could hear a rooster crow and a goat bleat from a house on the street below. It was so peaceful.

The next day, we went to Prescott to visit their arts and crafts fair. First, we went to Watson Lake in the Granite Dells to have a picnic. We sat in a ramada high above the lake. The view of the rounded boulders around and islands in the lake was gorgeous. Jeff decided to take some photographs.

Over an hour and a sunburn later, he decided to quit for the day. Neither of us had put on any sunscreen that morning, thinking we weren’t really going to be in the sun much. Bad decision. The sun in Arizona can cook you to a crisp in very little time. And it’s worse in the high altitudes, like Prescott and Flagstaff. I was luckier than Jeff, because I stayed pretty much in the shade.

Fortunately, the arts and crafts fair was around the Courthouse Square under the trees. Yes, Arizona has lakes and trees. So we didn’t get much more sun. But it was a lesson that we should have known by now. We’ll put on sunscreen any time we’re going to be outdoors.