Perspective

Zuni Sunset

I awake in a La Quinta hotel with images of last night's sunset still burning in my memory creating an awakening for me today.  The sunset was a "happening," that touched me at a level that brought tastes of wonder and awe to the very tip of my tongue. It was no ordinary sunset because of where I am.  The significance of "place" in our understanding of "happenings" was again brought home.  I'm not far from where most of the Zuni people live.  A Pueblo people still living in what a sign affectionately calls Zuni Land.  The entire Southwest is vitally rich in Native American history, tradition and present day Indian life.  The Navajo, Pueblo and Apache peoples most easily come to mind, but there are others as well.  Yet, this one tribe, the A:shiwi, Pueblo people native to the Zuni River Valley are closest to my mind as I'm practicing to learn two flute songs carrying their name, Zuni Sunrise and Zuni Sunset.  Seeing the sunset last night and sleeping not far from where the Zuni people live has made me more determined than ever to put their songs not just into play, but further into my heart, as well. 

So, my travels continue throughout this land of  Indian nations, petrified wood, and dinosaurs whose effigies stand innumerable along the roadside probably bringing smiles to the faces of paleontologists passing by.  Touching a grand piece of petrified wood yesterday pushed me to realize again just how small and, dare I say, trite a single life actually is too all of time, important surely to itself and loved ones, but not necessarily to history.  Individually we are, if you'll allow the metaphor, one small speck of dust on one ring of petrified wood imagining when it was a standing tree possibly shading a dinosaur.  When we touch history deeply we're taught to not elevate too highly our own level of individual significance.

Perspective!