There’s Something About Zion
July 27th, 2022
There’s something about Zion National Park. It is the something that I saw in your eyes, glazed over with longing. Something that hugged your heart like the comfort of a mother’s bosom and whispered, return to me. I didn’t understand it, until she embraced me herself. Now I know.
There’s something about Zion. Is it the way the towering sandstone mountains, worthy of their biblical name, create a never-ending backdrop of perfect focal points around us? Is it the warm scent of smoked sage and rosemary that blooms from the mint-colored shrubs at their bases? Or the scrawny brown deer that boldly nibble on them outside the orange glow of our jack-o-lantern tent, tickled with rain?
There’s something about the turquoise river that winds endlessly through the court of copper-colored kings, with peaks so high the angels can land. Her seductions contradict her warnings. I am a safe haven, promise her comforting walls and life-giving streams. Do not underestimate me, advise her thundering rock slides and torrential flash floods.
As the mountains and trees blend into shapes of yellow, red, and green from within the white shuttle that carries us through the park, I am completely immersed in beauty, wonder, and fearful awe. This home to all is vast enough to entertain our exploration for a lifetime. I forget about the outside world, feeling as though there is nowhere else but here, and I am content to remain. I am content to be, to breathe, to love. Your hand weaves into mine.
When it comes time for us to leave, I understand: there is something about Zion—and I must return.
