Finding A Spiritual Homeland: Part II
In Part I of my haven quest, I defined a spiritual homeland as a geographic-cultural world and ambiance that possesses, in its own style and substance, the qualities I desire in a partner: an aesthetic and sensual presence along with "a heart that sings and a mind that dances." I also shared my years of self-imposed "creative exile" in New Orleans. The Crescent City Muse helped inspire both meandering and exploring tenaciously an uncommon heart-mind-body-spirit path. Along "the way," I began to recover and embrace my individual and creative essence.
Painting the Way to Sedona
Part I concluded with my recent trip to the Southwest, culminating in a stay in Sedona, AZ. After seven years of wandering in the Washington, DC political badlands, my intuitive sense told me I would soon be coming "home" again. Let me illuminate the process. Two long-time friends and I had spent a day in the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest before arriving in Sedona. The desert surrounds you - low sloping, soft, voluptuously curved mesas; layers of pastel-colored sediment painted and sculpted by the ultimate artist. It's an endlessly expansive, panoramic palette. And the designs, and the heat, are both above and below. The mostly-parched arroyos, with their cracked, diamondback patterns, appear to silently glide under your feet. The patches of slightly moist, smooth clay from the last brief rainfall...Did I want war paint or a mud bath? A tough choice.
Our senses were definitely primed for Sedona. After nonstop driving, closing in on our destination, bouncing along a fairly abandoned dirt road, in the fading sunset, we were suddenly stopped short. In our sightline, the massive, green shrubbed, multicolored and layered rock formations that stand sentinel over deep, lush, hauntingly quiet Oak Creek Canyon.
The First Supper
If this was a "Yin," our next experience was a "Yang." In a late dinner, we encountered two Southern California women who spoke of their psychic readings and filled our heads with the lore of a number of locals and tourists - the indigenous "Nessie," the transformational Vortex. New Age metaphysicists believe Sedona and the surrounding canyons possess some of the dozen or so "power points" of the earth. There are vortices (singular, vortex: a whirling mass of energy that draws into its current everything that surrounds it) below the earth which, allegedly, give off energy, heighten creativity and instill inner peace. Well, seeing one of the women in action, I'm not sure about creativity or serenity, but energy...this woman talked incessantly. I had to use some of my best couple counseling skills just to allow her friend to get in a word.
Now I must confess, I'm a skeptic when it comes to some of the metaphysical mumbo-jumbo. Still, I did go for a reading from a spiritual healer. However, when she told me, based on the vibrations she received when I said my name that, in my past life, I was a seal fisherman in Alaska...let's just say we didn't quite connect. Past lives theory and therapy, when based on substantive exploration, for me, is an attempt to construct a meaningful belief system -- not unlike the purpose of Greek mythology or, even, Freudian psychoanalytic theory. That is, it can provide lessons for understanding universal conflicts and human temptations, as well as providing guidelines for grappling with justice, sexual passion and ethics in a world that often seems beyond our comprehension and control. (Though, for me, Greek mythology, has a much higher literary value. As for Freudian theory, I plead the fifth...Hey, it helps pay my bills. As past life regression theory does for its practitioners.)
While skeptical, at the same time, I have a pretty good pedigree when it comes to mystical-like experiences. (See my past column on "Creative Burnout," on my website -- http://net-site.com/gorkin -- or on AOL, Keyword: Stress Doc.) I know there are much deeper levels of awareness than which our ego or everyday consciousness allows. I get perturbed, though, when I see people searching for that vortex moment...like trying to hit on the psychic lottery. Too many want to project their, as yet, unrealized creative needs and drives onto some outside incarnation that will just visit them.
Discovering or recharging one's creativity is a profoundly human process. Of course, it involves being open to the obscure and "the obvious." It's also a process of exercising aptitudes and natural gifts along with encountering - often grieving - one's history. Perhaps most important, is the capacity to risk failure and to withstand disapproval and separation anxiety. That is, to pursue an individual path, however lonely or frustrating, that seems to defy the traditional, expected or familiar. And, surely, perspiration, not just inspiration is crucial - what I call persisting in one's headwork, heartwork and homework. And finally, there is that inspiration, from a muse, a place, a source of life greater than one's individual self.
And, much like my inexact modus operandi when traveling on vacation, I have taken a longer detour than planned. So, in an upcoming column, I will spell out why Sedona, despite my being somewhat vortex-averse, is pulling at my spiritual home- and heartstrings. Until then, of course, Practice Safe Stress!
Mark Gorkin, "The Stress Doc," Licensed Clinical Social Worker, is a nationally recognized speaker, workshop leader and author on stress, reorganizational change, anger, team building, creativity and humor. The Stress Doc is a columnist for the popular cyber-newsletter, Humor From The Edge. Mark is also the "Online Psychohumorist" for the major AOL mental health resource network, Online Psych . His motto: Have Stress? Will Travel! Reach "The Doc" at (202) 232-8662, email: Stress Doc@aol.com