Jen and I found our initial connection on two planes: we’d both recently escaped relationships with toxic people and we both absolutely prioritize our spirituality.

Most of my life, I’ve felt connected to God through nature, without any pull towards organized religion. I thought I was Buddhist for awhile, but as I learned more about it, there were just so many rules.

My inner student wanted to label how I felt about my existence and purpose, to study it further, to explain it. And that’s when I found Taoism, which is basically the belief that all beings and elements live in harmony with the universe and each other.

I am here for just as important of a reason as a tree or a rock or a mosquito. And the most comforting part about Taoism for me is believing that there’s no heaven or hell or eternal damnation or punishment for being authentic. Our souls are immortal and, when we die, we simply rejoin the universe in some other form…to contribute to the whole process walking another destined path to its end.

Living in New York City and the congested, concrete tri-state area for 16 years, I didn’t get a whole lot of nature time. I loved going to the Pocono Mountains and down the Jersey Shore for a little fix of nature. One time I went tubing on a river in Connecticut on a camping trip. Mostly, I stayed in the city.

Being back out west, I’ve had a chance to revisit some of my favorite places and experience some new ones, like Sedona this week.

So this morning, I reconnected with nature. We hiked to the Birthing Cave, a sacred Hopi site where pregnant women would start heading up the trail at the first sign of contractions and have their babies in there. We wondered if they had to do it alone or if they had friends and visitors bring them snacks and stuff…I mean, aren’t some women in labor for like several hours?

Either way, it was amazing and beautiful even though I had to stop a few times after being outta the nature game for so long. I’m so glad we chose this one, just a 2 mile out and back, as our first hike of the trip.

We sat up on the sides of the cave and tried to imagine what it’d be like for a woman to give birth in this space, what it’d be like for a child to have this view as his very first impression of the physical world. Where exactly did these new mothers sit though???

We walked back down the trail, it wasn’t nearly as treacherous as I imagined. In my younger years, I was a pretty decent hiker, and then traded my outdoor badges for city mouse status in the urban jungle…this hike was a return to a version of me I’ve missed…one who felt confident scrambling up rocks and following trail maps.

We did find some evidence of wildlife, tracks, gross scat, and real life deer, who seemed way less impressed with us than we were with them.

We stopped for coffee and an egg white omelette after our hike and then a trip to Walgreens for Jen’s allergic eyes…she’s felt so terrible since we arrived, googling frantically how to make it stop with warm compresses and eyedrops.

I’m so thankful to report the Allegra worked wonders and she was back to feeling comfortable and more herself by the time we made it to Grasshopper Creek…a local swimming hole more chill and peaceful than some of the more popular swim spots in town. There were people there, but the place is set up along the creek, so there’s not just one beach, rather you pick a spot along the creek and it’s yours.

We had to head out kinda early for our appointment with a tarot card, palm reader astrologer we found on the interwebs a few weeks ago.

Then we spent the evening in the hotel jacuzzi trading details of our respective readings while the bats flew around overhead like fuzzy little butterflies.

We originally planned to head two hours north to the Grand Canyon tomorrow at 2am for a magical sunrise. But, as we started discussing the details, it started to feel really complicated, where to park, a 3 mile walk from the visitors center to the lookout point, we have to be there and on the first shuttle by 5:11am or we’re gonna miss the sunrise and the magic and what’s even the point then?

The soul of this trip in the first place is to start tuning in deeper, to really trust our intuition over everything else, including the things our hearts might say they want. Life can be so simple but we can complicate it forcing shit that isn’t meant for us. Sure, my heart wants a sunrise at the Grand Canyon, but the more we talked it through, the more my intuition pressed, “Don’t force it, sis, now’s just not the right time…next trip maybe.”

So instead we’re headed out for a sunrise hike to a place in Sedona called Devil’s Bridge. Sounds sinister and kinda risky. Stay tuned ❤️