Wilderness Quest 2011 - Part 1

On the second to last day of April, I traveled in a yacht-sized black SUV from Denver to Moab, Utah with a complete stranger/new friend. .  Terry is a friend of a friend - a wild man who is unafraid of challenging himself in the physical world.  While I am more reserved when it comes to bodily challenges and feel more at home challenging my inner life, we still had fun getting to know each other as we rode through rain and snow, finally landing in the sunshine of Moab seven hours later. I was not only entering the stunning canyon areas of Utah, I was walking into the unknown territories of my third wilderness quest.

In Moab, we met up with the people with whom we would be spending the next eight days - three days together, three days on solo, and then another two days together.  With a history of shy introversion (painfully tongue-tied in the past, but getting somewhat better with age), the days of togetherness with strangers was more challenging for me than the hot days I sat alone with only this crazy mind for companionship.

After dinner out with the fourteen other beautiful people from the U.S. and Germany who, along with the desert creatures, would be my companions for the next few days, I went to my motel room with my two room-mates - a couple from California that I knew from some workshops we had taken together.  And do you know what we did that night in preparation for our great spiritual adventure into the desert???  We laughed and laughed, and we watched television!  I, a non-television viewer, watched TV as I entered into the abyss of the wilderness quest.  My companions' choice?  A "re-run" of the day's most televised event - the beautiful, proper, glamorous wedding of Prince William & Catherine Middleton!  Can you believe it?  What an archway into the austerity of the desert!