SEDONA: PART I



I've been meaning to write about my first trip to Sedona for a long time. It was a turning point in my life - perhaps the biggest of all. I think I'll start tonight.

A few years back, I went through a rough time. I guess I could say 9/11 started it all off. I didn't grieve all at once or anything, but I think it stayed with me for a long time and came out in weird ways. Six months later, my Dad died - without warning - from congestive heart failure. And then two months after that, my sister-in-law had a miscarriage five months into a pregnancy and almost died herself.

During it all, I was sharing a house with a neurotic Canadian chick. I'd answered her ad in the paper for a roommate. She'd just been divorced and was having trouble handling the mortgage alone. The house was awesome, and we sort of got along okay... in the beginning, at least.

Feeling completely lost in life, I was scared to take a step - for fear that the floor beneath me would crumble.

One evening, I was sitting in a diner having coffee with my high school friend, Jeni. She and I had the best "20-something-what-do-we-now?" conversations. I was telling her how lost and alone I felt. She suggested I do something for myself -- take a trip or something.

"Where have you always wanted to go?" she asked.
"Colorado. I don't know why, but I've always been drawn to Colorado."
"So promise me that tomorrow, you'll book a trip to Colorado."

And I promised her. So the next day, while surfing around the internet, I ended up catching another friend online. We grew up together and she now lives in Tucson, AZ.

"Nah," she told me, "You should come to Arizona. Actually, you really should check out Sedona. I think you'd be into it -- it's all spiritual and stuff."

And so it began.