Many have made the climb to Delicate Arch, so many that the erosion of human feet is visible on the soft sandstone, a dim meandering, path leading upward for a mile and a half into a queer region of knobs, domes, turrets and coves, all sculptured from a single solid mass of rock. What do the pilgrims see? The trail climbs and winds past isolate pinyons and solitary junipers to a vale of stone where nothing has happened for a thousand years, to judge from the quietude of the place, the sense of waiting that seems to hover in the air. […]
If Delicate Arch has any significance it lies, I will venture, in the power of the odd and unexpected to startle the senses and surprise the mind out of their ruts of habit, to compel us into a reawakened awareness of the wonderful – that which is full of wonder.
A weird, lovely, fantastic object out of nature like Delicate Arch has the curious ability to remind us – like rock and sunlight and wind and wilderness – that out there is a different world, older and greater and deeper by far than ours, a world which surrounds and sustains the little world of men as sea and sky surround and sustain a ship. The shock of the real. For a little while we are again able to see, as the child sees, a world of marvels. For a few moments we discover that nothing can be taken for granted, for if this ring of stone is marvelous then all which shaped it is marvelous, and our journey here on earth, able to see and touch and hear in the midst of tangible and mysterious things-in-themselves, is the most strange and daring of all adventures.
~ Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire
Notes:
- Photo: America’s Great Outdoors
- Related posts from Edward Abbey: Desert Solitaire
Live & Learn 
“…to startle the senses and surprise the mind out of their ruts and habit…” Love this… The blue moon last weekend did that for me. Brought me up short and made me sigh in wonder…
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Yes. That line grabbed me. This one opened my eyes wide:
…that out there is a different world, older and greater and deeper by far than ours, a world which surrounds and sustains the little world of men as sea and sky surround and sustain a ship.
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Agree, DK, made me keenly aware of my “grain of sand” size in the big scheme of things and also gave me a certain ‘buoyancy of spirit,’ a feeling of community with those around me. All in all a magical bit of prose… 😀
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It is Lori. Agree.
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And to be awakened in such a way, “For a little while we are again able to see, as the child sees, a world of marvels.”
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“…nothing can be taken for granted…”
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Yes…
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David, love this line:
If Delicate Arch has any significance it lies, I will venture, in the power of the odd and unexpected to startle the senses and surprise the mind out of their ruts of habit, to compel us into a reawakened awareness of the wonderful – that which is full of wonder. ❤
Diana xo
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Yes Diana. It hooked me too…
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Wonderful David.
thinks … to would be a great venue for a Donna Summer remembrance concert
xo
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It would Val….
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oh my gosh this is beautiful!
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I so agree Tina.
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this is magic.
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