We went out north of Three Points, Arizona, where I had found a clear road into the Roskruge Mountains using satellite photos. They appeared to be saguaro and associated vegetation on the hills. The peaks top out at 3700 feet with their feet lying probably somewhere around 2600, give or take. The private land goes into Tohono O’odham Nation lands and the Ironwood National Monument. It’s often hot out there and warm in the winter. We can expect a place to ourselves.
After a 30 minute drive through an often tortured desert landscape, we are slowing down as the two lane highway passes through the town which offers a few conveniences. After Ace Hardware, Dollar stores, and Mexican fast food, we find our turn at Fuller Road and head north. Asphalt shortly turns to dirt. I pull over in front of a dusty trailer on a property surrounded with a chain-link fence. I need to get out and adjust my 4×4 locking hubs. A pit bull rages out to punish our ruckus in its serene life.
Physical exercise gets increasingly important, yet as many of us age, we do it less. Recognizing this in myself, I have had to make intentioned resolutions to increase my physical activities. I love to sit and read, write, or meditate quietly. I have often in this life been way too comfortable to go about moving.
I once mentioned DF’s 100 year old mother giving me her Birthday advice. “Keep moving,” she told me. I have been attempting to build movement into my lifestyle. I replaced my couch with cushions on the floor to make me squat and stand up with more of an effort. I stopped getting off of the floor with the use of my hands. I stopped trying to place things around my home closer and more efficient, because time is now less valuable than movement, walking, bending over, lifting and carrying. All of this helps, but still, I can sit for hours absorbed into some intellectual fascination.
DF and I like hiking and dancing, which give excellent results while being fun. Camping is always a list of chores, from making shelter to making breakfast. Things just take longer. The gas stove must be set up, more than just twisting a dial. The dishes must be carried off to scrub and water hauled and then hung up. We have two comfortable chairs when car camping, but there is plenty of up and down when sleeping on the ground. The big bell tent is rigged intentionally with the seating on the floor. We get into plenty of squats. This was part of our plans during our White Mountain retreat, to live a more primitive and healthy lifestyle.
I needed rocks to hold a tarp down and a campfire. Instead of looking locally, I chose to walk clear to the end of the drive a few hundred feet away, where the road had disturbed the nature and tires have left errant rocks to dodge or bounce over. Two at a time, I carried them back, lifting them above my head, holding them out, or pressing them like weights as I walked. It was mindful and rewarding, not a burden. Extra effort, while inefficient, has rewards.
Under the heading of things to do nude with your friends, here’s a Holiday Tale.
As I’ve shared from time to time, we have been a part of a community sweat/sauna that has existed for something like 40 years. The land was sold a few years back, we ended up with a 501c3 and a bank account. After a few years of struggling to find a new location, I moved to a new home in more central Tucson, with the best conditions that I could find and we built a new sweat on my property.
We have a tribe, or an extended family of sorts, in our hearts. We have been having weekly “sweats” occasional fundraisers, work parties, a Thanksgiving gathering, and then last week, a Solstice Yule ceremony.
Around 20 or 30 members came around during the evening, happy to see old friends.
It starts with 16 to 18 people with confused expressions on their faces, being given a nail, a piece of wood, a 3×5 card and a pencil. Around sundown, they all strip into proper sauna attire. DF smudges them, as they entered the sweat, one at a time.
I am waiting inside, next to the ambiance of a candelabrum, my notes are in hand, rolled up like a scroll. I greet each, as they choose their places among the double rows of redwood benches. I had tied red ribbons to decorate the top of my usual Russian felt sauna cap. Before long, job well done, DF enters, finding her own spot on one of the benches, which are now filled cheek to cheek.
I introduce myself as, “I’m Jon and I’ll be your facilitator tonight… Also, by the power vested in me, by no one in particular, the high priest.” I introduce DF as, “your high priestess.” It gets a few chuckles.
I explain, faking a solemn serious concern, “I don’t know if you have noticed, but the days have been getting shorter. If this trajectory continues, the sun may disappear altogether! For hundreds of thousands of years, people all over the world have been gathering during these times and chanting and whooping and hollering, praying for the sun to return…Obviously this has been working.” There are more chuckles.
This will be the final post of the “Georgia and Back” series, placed back into the sequence, like Pt.I and II. We are at the Parkland Retreat Center, we left off here:
Standing nude, I make a full stretch, arms out legs taunt. Then, my fists pound a tight body, bringing the chi to alertness. The body awakens and softens up.
There is an awakening energy. It’s a desire and very natural. “Good morning world!”
There were lots of singing crickets last night. It was a good evening.
“Gotta keep movin’!” I remember DF’s mother’s 100th Birthday advice. We’re heading back across country from that event.
Yesterday afternoon, I found out about our host’s love of sauna. He says that the season is beginning, but every season is sauna season to us. I’m thinking that I have to encourage him without being too pushy. I find that there are no concerns though, he’s up for it.
In his storage room, he digs through a stack of canvas. He’s looking for the correct tent to abuse and its parts.
The sauna must however be constructed first. It has been put away for the heat and humidity of summer.
He has created a unique sauna/sweat. A factory seconds bell tent has had its main pole fitted with disks. These disks seal the air vent above at the top of the cone. This traps the heat, similar to a traditional Native American dome.
The Free Range Naturist 