Between a Rock and a Soft Place

I'm going hiking!

Some of you may be wondering what an urban dweller from the southside of Chicago knows about hiking? Absolutely nothing! But I am set to learn and explore anyway.

Oh. And if you didn't realize, in addition to being a city kid, I am also black. Double whammy. I may get out on the trail and break out in hives just from the sheer fact of being out in nature...right?

Of course I'm joking.  However, if you did think that, you aren't far off. I had no idea I was even interested in nature and hiking at all until about 5 years ago.

My wife Tavia had booked a trip to Scottsdale Arizona to celebrate my graduation from grad school at Columbia College Chicago. While enjoying the heat and relaxed vibe of the town, we decided to go on a jeep tour that took us up into the red rock mesas of Sedona.

I remember standing on a butte and looking down on a majestic view of an orange/burnt red valley. What I saw had been carved out by the finger of God over the course of a few millenia. It blew my mind.

I gazed at the beauty for sometime when I knelt and picked up a simple rock. Then an idea hit me right in my third eye. That rock had been in this valley for millions of years. I held it in my hand. Once I put it back down it could lay there for God knows how long. Maybe someone 100 years in the future would stand in the same place and pick up that same rock. Bam!

There was an instant connection through time that was millions of years in the making. The idea of a thread that connected the past, present and future was overwhelming to me. From that moment, I was infatuated with the idea of journeying through nature. If you want to call that hiking, then so be it. But it really is my way of experiencing what was, what is and what will be. A way of leaving my footprints on the edges of time.

Now this box...what's up with that? Well, it's taken me 5 years to take this journey through time serious. That's kind of ironic. Being a time traveler that procrastinates? Well I am tired of that and I'm jumping out of the box of sameness, of safety and finally doing what was placed in my heart that day in Sedona.

My first trek is tomorrow in Palos Hills. I'll be traveling through the forest preserves near Beverly Lake/Spring Creek Valley. I got my shoes, my hat and other essentials. It'll be short but its my first step. I'll post pictures and musings about my experience. Come along with me. Check in from time to time to see where my time traveling takes me next.