Yesterday my husband and I traveled from New York to Sedona,
Arizona. It was a long day of
traveling. Because I have never been to
Arizona, I was very excited to land in Phoenix and anxious to see the beautiful
red rocks that I knew awaited us in Sedona.
Leaving the airport in Phoenix, I have to admit I was very
disappointed. I am not sure what I
expected, and I am sure Phoenix is a lovely city, but to me it looked flat and
uninviting. I was eager to start our 2
hour drive to Sedona. Although the
highway views were a bit more interesting with the occasional group of saguaro
cacti and some unusual rock formations, again I was unimpressed. By time we reached Sedona, it was dark and we
were very tired. We pulled into the
resort and I just prayed for a unit with a view. We found our unit and there it was facing the
parking lot. It was disappointing to say
the least. But I am a forever optimist
so I thought to myself: no big deal, we
don’t plan to spend a lot of time in our room anyway. When I woke up in the morning my husband had
already been awake and was outside reading on the balcony. I asked him if he was enjoying the view of
the parking lot and he laughed. He said
he was and I should come out and join him.
This is what I saw.
I had a very similar experience to this
several years ago when I visited a dear friend in Seattle Washington. Her home had a panoramic view of the city and
the mountains that lay beyond. My sister
and I were taken by the beauty of the mountains that was our daily backdrop. My friend however, just laughed at us and
told us we needed to wait until the mountains were out. Clearly, to us, the mountains were indeed out
and they were beautiful. One day during
our stay we woke up to our friend telling us to get up because the mountains
were out. We stumbled out into the
living room, and were rendered absolutely speechless. Beyond the mountains we had been looking out
each day rose the highest, snow covered peaks we had ever seen. I never imagined something so magnificent
could have been there all that time, and yet be hidden. We thought we had already experienced the
beauty, but we had no idea of the potential that was hidden by the clouds and
haze.
As a teacher, I
feel like that visitor enjoying the view, without truly understanding the
potential of what lies beyond. I have
been excepting the walls of darkness and have vowed to make the best of
things. We need to start looking past
the darkness, past the haze and clouds and reach out to the world beyond.
Crumble, crumble, crumble
KH
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