zion week 3: bittersweet solitude

​Last week marked the halfway point in my residency.
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I have grown accustomed to being alone, my patterns of living are simplified, I am free. Free to wander, to work in the studio, to observe; opening myself to gain a small inkling of what it feels like to live in place that most people only get to spend hours in.

​It’s not all glitter & bambis, though.

Someone has to drive into town to do laundry & take the recyclables out.

And even though many Park visitors pass by Grotto House every day, there is a deep feeling of solitude, mixed with an undercurrent of melancholia for familiar loved ones & things of home, juxtaposed against a realization my time in this sublime place will be ending soon.
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September is a time of change… summer moving to fall as the equinox heralds shorter, cooler days. Sunlight does not gild the canyon floor here in the Grotto until nearly eleven after which it makes a quick journey across to the west rim, finally sinking from sight to leave this part of the canyon aglow with amber radiance from the still illuminated east rim.

The week’s end was marked by a visit to Springdale’s tiny farmer’s market to take advantage of the last bits of summer’s harvest,

& a celebration of the season’s transition at the town’s community center, where the yoga co-op practices. A two hour session of 108 sun salutations, an offering to the earth & the canyon. ​