I Spy with My Little Eye

Animal Hides that's what I called visible holes and pockets in cliffs, rock faces, etch as a little girl, it seemed logical to me that people and animals would stay safe from the weather and have a cozy place to sleep. I was obsessed with any culture that had deep connections to earth and honoring of animals as messengers and simply a great spirit. (Even though I was told this was "evil" and blasphemy)

These cultures I could read about, they Knew what I Felt!

So, as I hiked the Pueblo at Bandolier National Park at then across the canyon to the other ridge line that as you can see from the pictures, overlooks the pueblo, I began thinking about how brilliant it was to use the landscape not only as shelter but as camouflage and how while we consider these people as primitive or animalistic without all our modern things, they were one with the earth and the earth provided for them.

There is something reverent about being in the space, walking where those who honored the earth tread.

I think that inside each of us are pockets, carved out spaces in which we hide, taking shelter and use to camouflage those holes in the rock faces of our hearts and minds. I wonder, what kinds of animals hide in the pockets of mine?

I began thinking, I hope as people come across the "animal hides" inside me, or perhaps they trespass, that they find what I found here, inviting spaces, not spaces to fear what may be lurking.

It's not about me, for I am only a vessel.

It is you who carries me,

equipping me to soar

as the winds and seasons change.

Like the cry of the falcon,

my soul cries out through a quill.

Not with my own words,

but allowing you to speak through me.