A Dynamic Day in the Desert

Well what a weekend it has been!!

Last night we attended a ‘Cheezy Music and Raw Chocolate Dance Party‘. Need I explain more?

If you haven’t had the experience of a large group of very extroverted people dancing like fools, ‘high’ on waaaaaaay too much raw chocolate, durian and coconut…

You need to.

And today, oh today was a delight. It was the birthday of one of our best friends, and so four of us started out the day with a drive to the local Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, but not without first stopping along the way and having a huge spirulina salad picnic amongst the Saguaro Cactus!

The Saguaro Cactus is absolutely amazing.

They are so incredibly huge and feel like such conscious entities to me. Some are upwards of 30 or 40 feet tall, many of them with arms that stick out every which way. Those arms don’t always point up, sometimes they stick strait out, down or even display some sort of curly action. I totally love the landscape of the desert.

As we were sitting in the warm sun, totally loving this powerful experience with Nature, we got super excited for the season of harvesting Saguaro Cactus fruit.

Have you ever heard of Saguaro Cactus fruit?

It is AMAZING. I’ve only had it once, but it was literally some of the best tasting anything I’ve ever had. The season to harvest isn’t till late summer, but we’re planning already.

We then ventured off to the Sonora-Arizona Desert Museum, which was a lot of fun. I definitely learned a lot, such as the fact that a Javelina is not a pig, but in the peccary family, and there is amazing gems and stones in areas of Arizona around where I live, and the Jojoba plant grows in abundance in this area.

I seem to have temporarily misplaced my connector cord for my camera, so check back to this post for some lovely photos of the adventure 

The museum also had a mini ‘zoo’ sort of section, with cougars, a deer, a lynx, mountain lions, and others (all separate, of course). I have mixed feelings about this sort of setup. There is absolutely no doubt that no animal should have to live in the environments provided at zoos and other such facilities. However, this museum only had one of each animal and only took those animals that were, for some reason, unable to survive in the wild. Definitely a more responsible and conscious mindset than most zoos.

And when you see the faces of kids who see these animals up close for the first time, I just can’t help but think there is some benefit for them being able to be exposed to them – you can just see their wonderment. I think young kids know innately the importance of connection with nature and peace with animals. I know people whose lifelong dreams of being veteranarians or any careers involving animals have often began with the exposure to these animals that they woundn’t normally be able to experience.

That’s how it was for me – I wanted to work with wild orca whales for 10 years of my life simply because I went to Sea World (and then came back another two times). I’d still do it in a heartbeat.

I don’t know the ethical/moral answer to this subject, but those are just some thoughts 

I did have an interesting experience with the ocelot, however.

There were several viewpoints for his environment, including one that was ‘underground, with a big window that, surprisingly, was not glass – simply a few measly metal wires separating his environment from viewers. It just so happened that he decided to retreat to this corner right up against the ‘wires’. I noticed him as I was walking past and proceeded to approach him. He just watched me and I walked right up next to him, literally about two feet away. He kept watching me then proceeded to begin licking himself, with no concern about me whatsoever.

That was really powerful – it really felt as if there was no part of him threatened by me.

I’ve heard of the idea that humans can have pretty amazing experiences with animals, wild as well, if their energy is non-threatening to the animals. This would make sense, as animals definitely seem to feel energetics more strongly than we do. I know that I am at a more pure vibration than ever before, both because of my diet and my commitment to holding loving thoughts.

I suppose you never know, but it’s nice to think, eh? Maybe someday we’ll all be able to chill out with the tigers and lions and bears as if there were no particular species boundaries.

Next we went and saw ‘The Bucket List‘, with Morgan Freeman and Jack Nickelson. Pretty good, I liked it. I think we were the youngest people in the movie, nearly everyone looked of retired age. The movie had good lessons in and of itself, but it is so interesting to go to movies such as this knowing that people can heal their own cancer  Like, ‘Come on dude, you don’t know about ZEOLITE yet!?’ ‘Never heard of eating living foods?’ ‘Don’t know that thoughts can also heal?’ I suppose it takes the weight of some of those movies out a bit… oh yeah, that’s called empowerment. Right.

Anyways.

The night ended with chillaxin’ at The Casbah, a cool little morrocan style vegetarian/vegan cafe in Tucson. There are always bands and other performances going on here, and Sunday nights, we discovered, were bellydancing nights. I’ve never seen a bellydancer live, one of the gals was rather talented. I definitely admire the confidence it would take to dance like that in front of total strangers.

And with that, think good thoughts because you might be able to pet an ocelot, try cactus fruits someday, and make plans to attend a crazy chocolate dance party someday.

Courtney