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An Adventure is Waiting Outdoors

Out in Open Spaces with Friends

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Alicia McGraw Writer, Storyteller, Screenwriter Las Vegas, Nevada Area I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn. - Alicia Confirm that you know Alicia You received an invitation to connect. LinkedIn will use your email address to make suggestions to our members in features like People You May Know. Unsubscribe Learn why we included this. If you need assistance or have questions, please contact LinkedIn Customer Service. © 2014, LinkedIn Corporation. 2029 Stierlin Ct. Mountain View, CA 94043, USA

Art that Landscapes Deserts

 

Desert are often thought of as isolated, barren and unassuming. I know them to be a place where life thrives on the fringes. Art is seen in the decay of yesterday while a rock's brillance is revealed when light glances at it. 

Desert Gold

Welcome to Death Valley National Park. Spring is here. We didn't get enough rain to have the blooms this  year but we do have a flower garden in front of the Visitor Center. Speaking of visitor center; our Furnace Creek Visitor Center opened a week ago after eighteen months of renovations. I desire to challenge the African-American community to get out doors in 2012. Open Spaces Exploration is here to support you in those endeavors. As a guide for families first camping trip or even helping you plan a trip outdoors, we are here. I implore you to turn off the television, log off World of Warcraft and stop going shopping on the weekends. Instead go to a park, play with your families outdoors or create a new family tradition with a softball game outdoors. What am I saying? I'm saying move your body and it will clear out your mind. I find riding my bike, walking, hiking actually clears my head for the day. New lines for my writing or a scene that I've been trying to work out begins to clarify itself. Like Macy Gray says, "Get up, Get out and do something. Don't let the days of your life pass you by."

A New Song

Spring is coming. I can tell by the changes of my park. I hear a new song, sweet high pitched of a dipping bird flying from juniper tree to gambel oak shrubs. Its an early morning song that greets the first eastern sunbeam landing across a tree branch. I smell her coming; just standing close to a tree nose pressed against the bark. It stings in my nostrils, I sneeze then inhale another whiff of spring sap running in the tree. After work I know longer scramble home to get out while I still have daylight. I leisurely take my time knowing I have an hour to walk in my park looking for cotton tail rabbits, ermine and elk.

Spring brings about transformation. I'm laughing out loud. So many people are going to workshops, talk shops, classes, retreats to get refreshed, reconnected and paying a lot of money to do. You can walk out to your back yard, local park and sit. Be still.....I am reminded of a song my mother use to sing, "Peace Be Still" It was something about the verse "Whenever the Lord says "Peace" there is peace." That song verse is my chant as I walk watching the sun decline in the sky. Peace. It is a word I've know since I could walk and play in creeks. I have strived to have it a constant in my life. The challenge is not fighting what is, opening my heart to life fully. This includes what some people call negative situations; which I see as an opportunity or experience to grow through. Nature can give you that time out, reconnect, refresh feeling. It can give you peace beyond words, carrying you to a state of being I call bliss. It's obtainable. My only words of wisdom is to keep living. When you feel hopeless or helpless check yourself. There are only two emotions really love and fear. Which one are you living out of? Now go play.