Temporal & Eternal

Certain landscapes can affect our souls in deeply profound ways. Monument Valley is one of those. Intense in form and surreal in color and vastness, it reminds me of what Carlos Castenada called “a separate reality”. Foreign to my normal sense of time and place, spending time in Monument Valley will cause you to view life differently.

It was during the winter solstice, an hour before dawn. Temps in the low teens and winds that were impressive to say the least. I wasn’t waiting for the sunrise, I wasn’t waiting for the perfect light, it was already here, I was just being here. I took a few exposures via cable release, quickly checked the histogram for confirmation and then bracketed a few more, and then, as the sun started to rise, the moment was over for me.

Much later, while driving the road to Kayenta, Led Zeppelins’ "The Battle of Evermore" was playing on the radio;

“The Queen of Light took her bow and then she turned to go

The Prince of Peace embraced the gloom and walked the night alone

Oh, dance in the dark night, sing to the morning light

The Lord rides in force tonight, and time will tell us all”.

Robert Plant wrote the words to this song about the everlasting battle between night and day. I wonder if he ever visited this land of the Navajo.