Squishy

Sunset, Joshua Tree NP

I can't exactly call it a vision quest, since I'm here in the four-wheel camper, complete with cold beer and a warm bed.  It's something like that, though, perched on a pile of rocks tapping on my iPad, , marveling at this place.

I knew good things were coming when my favorite camp spot was available.

I might have mentioned before that Joshua Tree National Park has been a center of peace and renewal for me since my rock climbing days in the mid-80s.  It was a national monument then; free to get in and cheap to camp.  I was in medical school.  It was a three hour drive from San Diego, but I belonged to a small band of escapees that made the pilgrimage most weekends in the colder months.  Climbing was a meditation for me, requiring me to be staunchly in the moment at a time when the rest of life was a little overwhelming.

Now my strength and flexibility (not to mention my recalcitrant low back) keep me from climbing.  The place has retained its magical healing powers though.  Lucky me.

I'm not really here to photograph.  I did some, but not obsessively. It is only, as two of my mentors say, secondarily about the images. The experience comes first.

So, after helping some new friends extricate their high-centered motor home, I climbed up here and had a beer and started feeling squishy.  My husband and his sisters coined this expression when they were kids.  To be squishy is to be overwhelmed with love and gratitude.  All things are good in my world.  I'm alone with that JT magic and there's nowhere I'd rather be.

Star Trails, Joshua Tree NP

Of course, I'll be out of bed when the moon sets, shooting stars.

  

Thanks for sharing squishy with me.