On our latest podcast, Phoenix and I looked at February’s energy and astrology as seeming geared towards integration, introspection, and inner work. The astrology is pretty (shockingly?!) mellow this month, but there’s also a sense of things slowly building up to a big release in the spring.
Phoenix suggested this might be a great time to engage in “rituals of waiting” — activities that engage us with life in a meaningful way when it’s not yet time to act on the big, exciting goals we’ve set for ourselves.
One of our intentions as a family (Phoenix, Kobi and me) is to have more outdoor adventures in 2023. We live close to so many beautiful state parks and waterfalls and we feel like we were so serious about work last year that we didn’t get out into the wild as much as we would have liked.
So this week we took a day trip to Savage Gulf and hiked to the Stone Door.
From the tiny ranger station at the parking lot, it’s a lovely one-mile hike to this “door” cut into the mountain. The trail crosses a pristine little sweet-throated creek lined with mountain laurel and winds through the woods until you suddenly find yourself here:
The iPhone camera doesn’t really capture the perspective, but we were standing 10 feet away from the cliff’s edge and a 200-foot drop into the canyon. I know Kobi looks calm in this picture, but the energy was a little bit spooky up there and he was pulling pretty hard toward the edge of the cliff. (He’s as surefooted as they come; me, I have to pay attention.) Big vultures were circling just above us and then wheeling hypnotically out over the canyon. It was simultaneously thrilling, beautiful, and a little bit nerve-wracking.
Also pretty amazing to be able to stand in such a wild and beautiful place in the middle of the country and see no people, no buildings, no power lines, no signs — just wild nature. And high-energy Kobi was so tired from all of the mental work required to be the best boy over the course of three hours in the car and an hour hiking in the mountains that he napped for most of the evening and the following day. All in all, a most successful adventure!