PEAK EXPERIENCES

By John Minier

Belonging

"I travel across the skin of the earth, much like a blade of grass, held gently, travels across my skin. I imagine my hands and my feet moving over the ground in such a way that the earth finds sensuous. I feel her playful pinch in the sharp plants that I pass. I feel her desire in the heat of the rock upon which I lie. I feel her longing in the shadows that she stretches across her canyons.”

So reads a journal excerpt from my time spent wandering the canyons of Cochise in Southern Arizona. I have been moving across landscapes my entire life. What began as a selfish pursuit of adrenaline-fueled adventure sports has matured into a mutual love affair with the world. Some say Mother Earth…I say Lover Earth. I belong to her as much as she belongs to me.

No longer am I simply a visitor to wild places. I am a dance partner. The earth and I find a rhythm with each other, improvising if necessary, choreographing when we can, but mostly just expressing ourselves through meaningful movement. She is the wave below my board, the powder under my skis, and the wind in my sails. She likes to let me think I’m leading, but we all know who’s really in charge.

I have taken my tears to her more than once, and I have felt held and loved by the earth as much as I have felt held and loved by my community of humans. Sometimes, even more so. Humans are messy creatures with lots of big emotions, and we often fear that we are going to be “too much” for other humans. But I’ve never felt like I could possibly be “too much” for the earth. She’s always had my back.

And I have hers. ANW