Just look silently and deeply and you will find your master everywhere. The whole existence will become suffused with your master. And of course the moment a master dies. In the stones they will touch him, in the flowers, they will see his colors, in the rainbows, they will see his beauty. A disciple becomes so deeply immersed in the consciousness of the master that when the master’s consciousness spreads all over existence.
Nothing much to do this morning…. I could watch several old episodes of the “Twilight Zone” or maybe I should take a hike in the desert. How best to heal my bruised soul? It has been a hard year for all of us. Meaningful experiences have become harder and trickier to find and define.
On this early Thursday morning in the second month of the year 2021, I reject watching TV and decide to take a hike. My new cane (arthritis you know) joins me as we come to visit the saguaro cacti in the Saguaro National Park outside Tucson, Arizona.
I love the desert. It reminds me to be still. It is as the early environmentalist and trail maker, John Muir, used to say: “Everyone is born with an inner bond to nature, drawing us away from civilization, an impulse over which we have little rational control.” One way Muir expressed the wellness he experienced in nature was to establish the Sierra Club.
Cane and I begin our stroll along the sand trail where beautiful saguaros stand proud and solemn in the early morning dawn. The saguaro cactus, wildflower of Arizona and symbol of the Southwest, only lives in the Sonoran Desert, covering southern Arizona, a touch of California, and northwest Mexico.
The National Park Service says it can take 10 years for the great cactus to reach one inch in height. By 70 years of age it can be 6.5 feet and by its hundredth birthday will reach 15-16 feet in height. Most are 50-100 years old before they start growing arms. Most saguaros live 125 years and some reside on earth for over 200 years. It is not unusual to see old saguaros 45 feet tall. A mature saguaro can weigh two and one half tons and shrink or swell by 20-25% over a year depending on rainfall. The largest saguaro ever measured was 78 feet tall. It fell in an Arizona windstorm in 1986.
The saguaros provide food, shelter, and protections for hundreds of species. For example, the Gila woodpeckers carve nests in the plant. Those nests are later used by elf owls, purple martins, and house finches. Its sweet nectar attracts birds and many species of bats.
