Sunday, October 24, 2010

A Tale of Two Sunset Hikes

My goodness! I feel like these happened ages ago. I have really enjoyed blogging, but as I have mentioned in other posts, the volume of reading and writing I am doing for my classes has really made this project drop in priority. I am slowly trying to find ways to incorporate it more consistently into the rhythm of my live and catch up on all the ideas and adventures I want to write about.

Cathedral Rock http://wildsedona.com/trails/cathedral.htm

The first of these hikes occurred on the weekend before classes started… so here I am eight weeks later finally making the time to write about it. Sadly, some of my initial thoughts and reactions are not nearly as present in my mind anymore. Anyways, the purpose of this hike was one last hurrah for the end of our summer fun and the looming start of our first semester of graduate classes the next day. We also wanted the opportunity to hang out together before the craziness of our lives set in. Naively, I thought at the time, of course we will still hang out all the time. Although we do still see each other a lot through either work or classes, the socializing has dropped off quite a bit as we each get a handle on our new lives and the demands of it.

We headed to Sedona to enjoy the hike and sunset at Cathedral Rock. The usual suspects came along: R, J, and A. The description of this hike is short and steep. I guess it depends on your interpretation of short… but I definitely agree with the steep part! This definitely challenged my confidence in my agility as well as my fear of heights. As I climbed upward, sometimes almost vertically, I found myself thinking what the h**l am I thinking? This would be followed by the realization that I would have to climb DOWN this same path. Because most of it is not a trail and more of a climb up solid rock, they have build cairns of rocks to keep you headed in the right direction and on what I assume they are suggesting is the easiest path to take. Look in the pictures for an example.

As we climbed higher, the view got more and more amazing. We finally reached the top which was the saddle between the one farthest on the left and the next one. We rested and enjoyed the view for a while. It was then decided to climb a little further to a different saddle. Again, a few minor freak outs and cussing along the way, but arriving at the top is so worth it! After hanging out there for a while, we headed back down to truly enjoy the sunset. As soon as the sun hit the horizon, we started scrambling down. I certainly did not want to be negotiating my way down in the super dark! Every so often, I would still want to stop and enjoy the view and the changing colors of the sky. Luckily, the climb down was not quite as scary as I thought. I just stayed low to the ground and took my time! It was a lovely way to spend our last evening together before our semester started.

Wupatki National Monument http://www.nps.gov/wupa/

We had so much fun on our previous week’s sunset hike that we decided to do another one (and we kinda got a late start in the day!) This time it was me, R, and A. Our goal was to get to the main monument, but we didn’t quite make it. This was the first time I had been in this direction, and yet again, I was in a for a surprise with regards to the terrain and vegetation. It is so crazy how quickly it changes and the diversity you discover in every direction. I just had no idea how rich in natural surroundings that Arizona can be. Every experience has shown me something new.

Our first stop was the Citadel and Nalakihu Pueblos. These were old Native American ruins that had been preserved. The path for the Citadel travels around the elevated ruins and when you come around the bend you discover there is a huge crater. The amount of work put into these brick pueblos, as well as their lasting power, is impressive. After checking this one out for a while, we kept moving as our original plan was to check out the primary ruins. Our last stop ended up being the Doney Mountain. We hiked to the top of this little “mountain,” and were rewarded with an amazing 360 degree panoramic view. We could see for miles in all directions. We could see the San Francisco Peaks in one direction and in another the Painted Desert. I was super excited for my first glimpse of the Painted Desert. We sat back and enjoyed the changing colors of the sky as the sun set. It was so different in every direction. It was also very peaceful and relaxing. This hike was not nearly precarious so we did not feel rushed to leave as soon as the sun hit the horizon. The other really enjoyable part about this hike was the amount of flower and plant life I observed. It was the greatest variety I had seen so far, and I saw new vegetation that I had never seen before. A lot of my little camera phone pictures didn’t capture it well, but there are some in the pictures.

Picture Links

Cathedral: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2212290&id=18808643&l=cb9b12df58

Wupatki: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2216530&id=18808643&l=cdc88f8ec2


Friday, October 15, 2010

My Public Narrative

Our first writing assignment for my program was to write a public narrative. Below you will find mine. This one goes out to my mother for the inspiration she has provided me even when I didn't realize it. I spend a great deal of my time these days reading, writing, and thinking. Although this was the first thing I wrote, it continues to shape what I am thinking about and points me in an unexpected direction. These themes continue to find their way into my writing and thoughts in all of my classes. And here I thought I would be all about campus sustainability! Don't get me wrong, that focus is still near and dear to my heart, and I am already thinking about ways to pull these themes into the setting of a college campus and college students. I just returned from a conference, AASHE (Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education), and it also reminded me of why I started this program and why I have the interests I do. It is exciting, though, to find my mind and my inspiration wandering in other directions and finding other personal connections. I think I even have the inkling and shaping of what my thesis might be. This is really great as I came here scared to death about finding an idea on which I could write a 60 plus page research paper. I hope you enjoy my public narrative and I would love to know what your reaction to it is. It would help me know whether or not I accomplished the goal of the assignment.

I am content and happy in way that I have not been in a long time. In fact, it would be challenging for me to recall the last time I felt this relaxed and happy in my adulthood prior to now. I believe I have found my way, my peace, and my inspiration by coming to Flagstaff. I distinctly remembering being dissatisfied with my life throughout most of my childhood because I was a “country girl,” and I desperately wanted to be a “city girl.” I wanted cable to watch MTV and suburbia to have a posse of neighborhood friends. Well, I have been a city girl for the last fifteen years or so of my adult life, and although I have many joyous memories of adventures and experiences from around the world, I do not know that I was ever completely satisfied or at peace. As I reflect on the recent changes and choices made in my life, it suddenly occurred to me, that in a way, I have come full circle and made the unconscious decision to embrace my roots and upbringing. With that, I have a new respect and value for my childhood experiences and their influence on who I have become.

I grew up with a “hippy” mom in the seventies who was very gung ho to live the natural life and live off the land. At thirty-six, I completely appreciate what she was doing, but between five and eighteen, I just thought it was weird. I wanted “normal.” I wanted Heinz ketchup, Welch’s jelly, Oscar Mayer bologna, Rainbo white bread, and sugary cereals, not homemade bread and canned goods, fresh vegetables from the garden, and eggs from our chickens. I certainly did not want to be the victim of her vegetarian experiments like nut loaf and millet burgers. Well, I still don’t want those, but as I become older I realize how much of her values and lifestyle has snuck into my own! I am forever on the quest for fresh fruits and vegetables that taste like something. I love it when my husband makes bread, and although I have no desire to take care of farm animals to meet my dairy and egg needs, it would be nice to not be stressing about whether or not they are “happy animals” or the amount of money I am spending to have some of that peace of mind.

I have also rediscovered my passion for nature. I am and always will be an avid animal lover, but I have renewed my love for the scenery around me and being outdoors. We have been biking almost every day and hiking every weekend since moving to Flagstaff. Because I lived in the country as a child, these were part of my daily existence then. If I wanted to visit a friend, I had to hop on my bike and ride two to six miles away to go play. Every summer, I would spend most of my days playing in the forest behind our house. For the last fifteen years, I have lived in cities where parks were the green space and the “wilderness” was a car drive away. I now have the choice to walk and bike just about everywhere again, and I love it. I am re-experiencing that child-like wonder of the natural world around me.

Obviously, I came to Flagstaff for the Sustainable Communities program wanting to be better trained and educated to make a difference in the world around me, but now I have an even greater sense of urgency with the renewed realization of how much could be at jeopardy if we continue down the path we are on as a society. It seems so much of it is about consumerism and how we use it as way to make ourselves feel better and our association with needing stuff to be happy. I am guilty of that although I am working on it! I love my stuff, and I enjoy shopping. However, I feel myself slowly pulling away from buying for the sake of buying and challenging myself with the questions of “do I need this?” and “do I need to replace what I already have?” My response to myself is still mixed, but having less disposable income than I have had in a really long time is definitely helping me be more honest in my answers. The most important piece of this is that I have realized, as I said earlier, that I am happier than I have been in years! I am also more active than I have been in years. I am going outside and playing instead of sitting inside watching TV or going shopping. I suspect there is a correlation between my moods and how I am choosing to spend my time.

It is time for all of us to rediscover what playing is all about and how enjoying the world around us can bring a sense of joy and wonder in a way an IPod or new pair of shoes cannot. Perhaps my idyllic country childhood is unique to a small group that continues to dwindle, but I believe that all of us have had a moment in our lives where we have felt a sense of awe and pleasure based on an experience or encounter with a piece of the natural world. This could have been a trip to the zoo, a family camping trip, a visit to a natural history museum, playing in the park down the street, or even a science lab at school. We all should pause, remember, and reflect. What are our memories of that feeling? Why did it bring us pleasure and awe? Most importantly, how can we discover ways today to find that feeling again and embrace it daily? How can we introduce this to our children so that our future generations value the natural beauty of our Earth and want to protect and enjoy it?

This is my fear and this is why I call to you to remember how to play outside and teach it to your children. We are losing this value bit by bit and day by day. Our children are not in the habit of going outside and playing any more and neither are we. The siren call of the television and video games or driving to the mall to shop drowns out the wind in the trees for many of us. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2010), childhood obesity has tripled in the last thirty years, and in 2009, 26.7% of adults were considered obese. Serious health risks are linked to obesity, including an increased risk in cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. Exercise is on top of the list of how to combat obesity. I think we could count play as exercise, don’t you?

We face challenges, though; in fact sometimes we are dealing with actual rules and laws that discourage play. Richard Louv (2005) writes about what he has labeled “nature-deficit disorder,” and the increasing number of children who are experiencing this problem. He describes it as “the human costs of alienation from nature, among them: diminished use of sense, attention difficulties and higher rates of physical and emotional illnesses” (p. 34). Is this where we have arrived? Are we truly at the point where someone has to write a book about how losing touch with the natural world around them is having a negative impact on the health of our children? The increasing regulations in our neighborhoods in the form of homeowner’s association regulations and zoning codes are also prohibiting playing. From prohibiting basketball hoops in the driveway to requiring tree houses without building permits to be torn down, we are stealing the potential of spontaneity and creativity. We are discouraging play and we need to stop this momentum.

Flagstaff is not the true turning point in my personal shift in priorities, but it is definitely shaping my path and clarifying it further for me. Flagstaff and my surroundings have brought out parts of me that I did not know existed or that I have not recognized in a long while. I have newfound peace and acceptance for who I am and where life’s journey may be taking me. It has heightened my awareness and is continuing to shift my values. I do see hope and possibility that encourages me to continue promoting the value of green space and play. A recent trip to Manhattan, which is one of the most urban places on earth, celebrates its green spaces, and so do the residents. Everywhere you turn in Central Park, there are people of all ages playing and enjoying the outdoors. There are smaller parks around the city that are well used, as well as neighborhood playgrounds everywhere with children running around and laughing. In another part of the city, a group of citizens took an abandoned elevated railway track and have turned it into the Highline Park, an urban oasis of greenery and comfortable benches for sitting and watching the world go by. It was filled with people walking, talking and picnicking while we were visiting. Despite the dominance of steel and concrete, it is clear that this is a city that wants to preserve its bits of green for the residents so they have a quick escape from their daily urban confines and a place to play. Even around me at NAU, I see many taking advantage of the campus green spaces. Students are outdoors talking, studying, throwing Frisbees, and not inside playing videogames. People do want to play and be outdoors, we just need to remind them that they can and should be choosing to spend their time in different ways than they currently are doing.

Monday, October 4, 2010

My Self Change Project: Using a Car Less

Well, I guess my previous post was a prediction of me falling momentarily off the blog bandwagon. But now I am back and going to try and commit myself to one or two posts a week. Surely I can handle that right? I do have lots of fun ones started and floating around in my head. It is just hard to make time in between reading, writing, working and the occasional bit of housework and some fun, too! So stay tuned for more hiking adventures and our trip to New York City.

In the mean time, I am going to get a bit nerdy on you. I am a grad student after all. For my Conservation Psychology class, one of our assignments is a Self Change Project. After much deliberation and stress, I decided to undertake a pretty strict reduction in the use of personal cars as a means of transportation. I supposed I should also change that “I” to a “we.” Clearly, this decision affects R as well. Luckily, he is supportive and a good sport.

The basic gist is that for any in-town trips, we are not to use a car unless we are transporting something heavy or some other legitimate reason that would necessitate it. We are working on eliminating any trips that we would tend to make out of convenience or laziness. You should also note my use of “a car.” Although primarily focused on reducing the use of our car, we did not allow ourselves the loop hole of just always jumping in someone else’s car out of convenience. To further discourage our use of the car, we gave up our campus parking permit (for a refund of $375, thank you very much!) and moved the car to the parking lot of Robert’s studio which is about a mile away from our apartment. Probably ninety percent of the places we go would be within that mile radius anyways, so it would make no sense to go get the car. You may ask why we are not giving it up completely? Well, we wanted to allow us the opportunity to continue the weekend trips we have been taking to hike and explore the region. Perhaps a little selfish, but it is still going to be a change for us and a greater change in car use than most people would take. Research shows that making a public statement of intent leads to better follow through and commitment to making the change. So, I said I would write about the project on my blog. So here ya go! If you really want to know more about what I am doing and why let me know. I was going to attach my paper, but I can't figure out how! However, I am happy to send it to you if you ask.

I will leave you with a few questions to ask yourself:

Could you come up with one less car trip to make each week?

If you decided to change one behavior that has a negative impact on the environment, what would it be?