Yin and Yang in the High Desert

A cool and misty morning in Sedona

Have you heard the expression "high and dry"? Well, that can often be a description of Sedona, Arizona, where we live. The weather is usually sunny, dry, and bright (yang in the Chinese sense), which highlights the amazing shapes, tones, and textures of the area's beautiful and dramatic red rocks. From our living room, we see both the beautiful rock formation called Courthouse Butte, and an enormous expanse of intense blue sky...except for this afternoon. This is more like the weather in Eugene, where the winters are cool, misty, and very yin. So it's actually a wonderful mix of the Northwest and Southwest today, and blended with the water feature in our back yard, it's a wonderfully quiet late afternoon, perfect for meditating.

On a deeper level, is this just a photograph that depicts an image in your mind that registers mostly at the mental level? Or does it capture some essence or spirit of this day that some part of your mind or body or spirit can tune into, and experience for itself? If you want to experiment, gaze at the picture and imagine the various sensations it points toward - the soft moist air, the gurgling of the water, the way some deep part of you responds to mist and low afternoon sunlight peering in and out through the low clouds.... What do you experience?