Our Trip to the Desert -- Part Two

After a leisure morning, trying unsuccessfully to find a special restaurant that would take a reservation in the evening on Valentine's Day, we decided to drive some 20 miles to Palm Springs to attend an art show, do some more hiking, then take our chances on finding some venue for the evening.

When we arrived, there were bicyclers everywhere, celebrating something or other.  We found the outdoor art show and walked around.  I found myself wanting to spend thousands of dollars, but that wasn't going to happen.  I did purchase a three-dimensional piece of art crafted from flowers, some teeny-tiny, and it now proudly hangs in one of our bathrooms.

Near the art show was a community theater, and that night a parody play was being performed.  We walked in and to our luck and delight we got the last two tickets for the 8:00 performance!  The play was called "I Saw What You Did Last Donna Summer," a spoof of the old teenage slasher movie combined with the music, when the song title fit into the plot, of disco diva Donna Summer.

With our evening squared away, we found a nice restaurant nearby where we had a lovely lunch (I maintained my gluten-free diet, thank you very much!), spent a little more time at the art show, then headed for the southwestern part of the Palm Springs area.  Off by itself from the somewhat glitzy town is an Indian reservation. Once there you can find hiking trails, this time with rocks and varying kinds of palm trees, not Joshua Trees.

The trail we decided to hike was literally along an expansive oasis of palm trees. If there had been time, and we hadn't started so late, we could have seen even more of this oasis which continues for some 13 miles!  As it was, it was just beautiful, not to mention cool, in the afternoon sun.  You always hear about oases in the desert, and you may imagine a few around a pool of water. This was one an oasis alright that followed the path of a stream, but this oasis goes on and on and on!

Here is my offering of pictures I took of this incredible oasis.  I hope you enjoy them!

Looking down on the first trees of this incredible palm oasis that goes on for miles

Coolness, thermally and esthetically

Usually fires or lightning strikes burn the "beards" of the palms, so I guess that hasn't happened here in a while

One of many, many groups of palms

Lovely and beautiful basking in the afternoon sun

There was ample shade on the trail

Did I mention there were a lot of palm trees? Some looked to have trimmed beards

Rocks from a rocky canyon just off of the trail in the afternoon sun

The farther up we hiked the more we saw massive amounts of dead palm fronds

Notice the blackened trunks; there was a fire in the area in 1980.  Most palms don't seem worse for the wear

From the rocky, side canyon--I love rocks!

See the little fella?

Palms amid the rocks of the side canyon

I'm always amazed how plants like this beauty take hold and thrive by rocks

Couldn't stop taking pictures of these majestic trees, perhaps because I'm just a fascinated Utah boy and always will be

Bob and Ann!

Our Trip to the Desert - Part One

My wife and I decided to take advantage of the Presidents' Day weekend and decided to take a trip east out of Los Angeles to the desert.  We had gone east to Idyllwild and the Big Bear area on other long weekends, amid the conifer trees, and we had briefly visited Joshua Tree National Park once before.  But since we had taken weekend trips north to the ocean (Morro Bay and environs in Central California) and south to San Diego, I decided to slow way down and get way quiet, and go east toward the deserty Palm Springs area.

We rented a one bedroom apartment at the end of a dirt road in a tiny town called Morongo Valley. For Southern California readers, it is about 15 miles northeast of the hi-rise Morongo Casino, and some 2000 ft above sea level. Arriving on Thursday night, with little light to interfere, we found ourselves looking up into the star-filled sky, enjoying that expansive beauty, when we weren't distracted by jets flying high on their way to land in Los Angeles.  It was deafeningly quiet and peaceful--and wondrous.  We even heard a coyote off in the distance.

Friday morning we left to spend the day to once again explore Joshua Tree. It is full of Joshua "trees," cactus that when large enough look somewhat like trees, and rocks, rocks, and more rocks! The rocks are often viewed in large "Flintstone-like" formations, spectacularly found everywhere in the Park. The rocks attract many rock climbers, and we saw some working their way up or down some formidable formations.

We first hiked in what is called "Hidden Valley," one of the more popular places to go in the Park to see the Joshuas and the rocks, as well as other flora.  After a nice lunch amidst the rocks, we headed over to The Maze, a twisty-turny trail that goes up and down canyons and over and between rocks. (Did I say there were rocks here?) It wasn't until we were just about back to the car that we saw anybody else on that trail.  The solitude and stark majesty filled our souls.  

The pictures that follow were taken by me in Hidden Valley and The Maze.  I hope that you enjoy their beauty.  I do, and being in this area filled me with wonder for its beauties, and with gratitude to God for creating such a wonderful example of His artistry.

The next posting (Part Two) will display pictures from our Saturday hike.

One of the first rock formations  and Joshuas to greet us as we neared Hidden Valley

Some Joshua Trees with a yucca and an oak tree (I believe) in Hidden Valley

Rocks and clear, incredibly blue skies

Yuccas promulgating in the midst of all the rocks near the trail

This was like looking at a dead body

These identations in the rock were made by early Indian inhabitants to grind nuts and other foods

I thought I would catch the starkness, the rocks, the dead tree, and the jet and its trail in the blue sky

"Flintstones, meet the Flintstones..."

Climbers love the rocks of Joshua Tree

Just beautiful

Do you see the closed eyes, nose and mouth?

Look for my wife on the trail in The Maze

I thought that this hearty little cactus was just incredible

Rocks everywhere in this geologic wonderland

Wanted to take this picture with the sun peeking over the outcropping

Hill and more hills of rocks along The Maze

In the foreground is an outcropping; in the background, you see civilization on the desert floor

I Failed the Exam

For those who few who faithfully read this blog, you will know that I have been preparing earnestly to take my licensing exam to receive my Marriage and Family Therapist certificate for some time. I wanted to let you know that I failed the exam.

It was emotionally hard to take at the time, and I have spent the past week processing my feelings and talking with my wife and others. I understand that at some point I will pass the exam. I understand that it has no bearing on whether I am a good therapist or not (I believe I am).  I also understand that it is okay that I have feelings about this setback and I acknowledge to myself that I am in the grieving process.

I can retake the test after I apply to Sacramento, and their permission to do it again usually takes about six weeks. I haven't yet applied, but will likely do so next week.

In the meantime, for all of those who prayed and fasted for my success, I am so grateful to you.  I see the hand of the Lord in all of my affairs, including this, and I look upon this as a setback but also as a learning experience.

I am so loved!

My Thoughts About the Excommunication of John Dehlin

In an earlier blog posting, I referred to John Dehlin (deh-LINN).  He started Mormon Stories Podcast some ten years ago, and it was while viewing an extensive interview (over 7 hours) with the winner of the second season of the TV reality show So You Think You Can Dance that I began my journey of coming to grips with same-gender attraction, and other doubts and questions I have.

As we watched it, listening to John Dehlin's non-judgmental, inciteful questions, I came to understand Benji Schwimmer's excruciating journey as a Latter-day Saint and a gay man. I never got the feeling that Dehlin was trying to persuade me or that he had an agenda. Instead, I sensed that he was asking questions of Benji that came from a knowing place about the challenges of LGBT members of the Church, and that he created a safe place for Benji to be real and open about his challenging path.  I found Benji's story both intensely riveting and spiritual. (Please see my blog posting of June 1, 2014)

In listening to interviews with Richard Bushman and Terryl and Fiona Givens, among others, I have sensed John's doubts, he freely admits to having them, but he never seemed to try to influence me as a listener.  Rather, I sensed that he was giving voice to the thousands of LDS who are struggling with the Church and its doctrines and practices.  I sensed that many like me who listened and have questions or even doubts, were hearing someone like us with similar concerns, and that we were all bound by a Church to which we wanted to keep connected.

For my part, my interactions with Mormon Stories Podcasts have been informative and uplifting.  As a result, they have helped me to learn what I feel is an important truth: what is thought of as sure "knowledge" of a belief or doctrine is comfortable and easy, requiring little effort once acquired, but that faith, in the midst of doubt and question, requires great effort and continual nourishment.  I have felt spiritual confirmation that faith is indeed the First Principle of the Gospel, and that God will lovingly challenge our seeming sure "knowledge" in order to help us exercise faith in Him.  For if I have "perfect knowledge," what need have I for faith? (see Alma 32)

I am greatly saddened by the excommunication of John Dehlin, whom I had the pleasure of meeting when I attended the Affirmation conference last year. The excommunication was not a surprise, and I believe that his Stake President thought he was protecting the Church from apostasy by implementing this draconian measure, which he has the right, and the Church would say, the responsibility to do.  

I firmly believe that the primary reason for this drastic action was because of John Dehlin's use of Mormon Stories Podcast as an offering for doubting, questioning Latter-day Saints, like me. I believe that if there had been no Mormon Stories Podcast, there wouldn't have been a Church court. If he had removed all of the "controversial" podcasts, seen by the Church as his attempt to indoctrinate people to believe as he believes, he likely would not have been excommunicated. He was challenged to remove them by his Stake President.  

But my opinion is that the Church, i.e., this Stake President, wholeheartedly believed that he was purposefully trying to lead people astray, away from the Church. I do not believe that was his motivation because I never heard it or felt it. It is as if the Church seems to feel the need to control or at least manage perceived controversy, believing that some of its members are incapable of handling cognitive dissonance, and feel the need to protect those "tender sprouts," who supposedly have sure "knowledge." John Dehlin was giving me a voice, a podcast to help me with my own cognitive dissonance, to help me to have faith even though I don't have or know all the answers.

It is almost as if the institutional Church doesn't get me either, and I am relegated to not voice my doubts or questionings, else what has befallen John may befall me.  When I did in an earlier blog posting last year, I was called in by my Stake President.  

I am very secure in my relationship to the Savior. My testimony of the Gospel is strong. (Please see my posting of June 29, 2014) I am grateful that the institutional Church is allowing more of its controversial past to be examined. But I still have some questions and some doubts.  And there are a number of people like me that sit in church pews in every chapel every Sunday who likewise have questions and doubts. 

The Church (on a general and local level) certainly doesn't get John Dehlin and what he has been trying to do.  I honor him for his attempts to reconcile his faith with his doubts and questions, even if he did make them public.  I honor him for his website staylds.com, for helping to launch Mormon Matters, for his talk at the Sunstone Symposium about Why I Stay.  I honor him for his earnest desire to stay affiliated with the Church that he loves. I am grateful that he has stated that he will continue to do Mormon Stories Podcast.  I need his voice, a voice that his Stake President (the Church?) did not want him to share with the likes of me.

As a side note, I wonder how this posting is going to be received.  Will some people feel I need to repent?  Will I get called in by my Stake President?  Or will someone who has questions and doubts, and knows me and knows my faithfulness in spite of them, read this and feel empowered that maybe they too can continue faithful?