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One Heck of a Wedding Present
July 1, 2008by Jeffrey Pierce
Briana and I left for our honeymoon without a concrete destination and without any sort of an itinerary. We consciously chose to simply allow Spirit to lead us. So we pointed our car toward the American Southwest and entrusted ourselves to the goodness around us.
One blessing after another flowed into our world. We'd pull into parking lots filled with cars to have the vehicle in the space nearest to the establishment's door pull out and give us the closest space. Each hotel we stayed at drastically slashed their rates for us. One of us would be craving dark chocolate and we'd be offered bars of the stuff. We simply enjoyed each other's company as the miles sped by, having an absolutely wonderful time doing very little.
There was the cave of petroglyphs that we were led to. Out of the five potential locations on our route for Bri's favorite breakfast diner, we happened to encounter two of them when we were ready for breakfast. Every time we thought of something we'd enjoy, it appeared. It wasn't even a matter of needing it, as things never progressed to that point. The entire honeymoon was a lesson in manifestation and being open to the goodness of spirit.
The crowning gem in this experience was when we arived in northern Arizona, exhausted from the road behind us. There's a tradition in my world that a road trip requires a stop for milkshakes - and we found some of the best roadside milkshakes at a small stop just outside of the north rim of the Grand Canyon. The parking lot was absolutely packed, not only with the usual assortment of tourists, but with an entire motorcycle convention. We parked at the only available space (right in front of the door) and went inside for supplies when we discovered that they also made (absolutely amazing) milkshakes. Bri and I had been talking about the petroglyphs we had seen the day before and, as we waited for our milkshakes to be made from scratch, we found a copy of "Easy Field Guide to Rock Symbols of the Southwest" on the counter in front of us for $1.50.
We went to the visitor center a short distance away (once again, parking right in front of the door) and went inside. A handicapped Native American forest ranger manned the desk while a tall caucasian ranger went about other tasks. After a short conversation, Bri asked the Native American ranger if he knew of anything in the area that wasn't overly crowded, that we were looking for something spiritual, that wasn't too touristy. Amid the dirty looks from the other ranger (and a number of comments that he was none too pleased in having secrets passed out to tourists), the Native American gave us a hand-drawn map and directions to a site on the north rim of the Grand Canyon.
"There won't be anyone else there," he assured us. "You'll have the canyon completely to yourselves."
Briana looks out over the Grand Canyon, appraising the view from our campsite.
He was right.Complete solitude, hiking trails devoid of other hikers, and our own private view of the Grand Canyon. There are honeymoon suites and there are rooms with a view, but this was simply beyond compare. The indescribable size of the Grand Canyon was magnified by the fact that we had it all to ourselves. No cars. No voices. No people. Just us, the canyon, and the wildlife that called the surrounding forests home.
The next morning we began the journey home. It was clear to us we'd been led to Toquima Cave for a reason and that the night alone on the rim of the Grand Canyon was a wedding gift from Spirit. Although we would have loved to have made it to Sedona, both Bri and I agreed that we could inuitively sense that it was time to head home and begin doing the work that we'd been brought together to do. And Old Ways is very much as the center of that journey.