All Souls Week 2, Ep. 40

Episode 40: Celebrating AZ

Julie takes us to the White Dove in the Desert, San Xavier del Bac, and explores the power of prayers tied to candles; Lisa goes back in time to watch her father and a friend get a fright by going where they didn’t belong at Canyon de Chelly.

Mug: Cliff Dwellers Lodge

"Canyon de Chelly"

From Arizona: 100 Years Grand

by Lisa Schnebly Heidinger

Talk about melding cultures. Canyon de Chelly occupies a unique status.  Create as a National Monument I 131, it’s still tribal trust land completely owned by the Navajo Nation.    Dozens of families live within park boundaries. There’s no good analogy.  “It’s like running a church inside someone’s home” or “It’s like living over Main Street in Disneyland” don’t work.  The Navajo Nation is sovereign, meaning the tribe as absolute independent authority. Blend that with the National Park Service culture and rules, and you have a complex, deliciated balanced, organic relationship that continues to evolve and confound.

Canyon de Chelly itself is an amalgam of ancient ruins and startlingly beautiful land features. The sandstone pinnacle Spired Rock is here, shooting 800 feet high like a fossilized rocket that stayed connected to the earth after takeoff, White House Ruins, the only place in the park where tourist can venture without a Navajo guide, seems to old secrets of early residents.  Mummy’s Cave, named for two figures wrapped in yucca fiber discovered there, looks for all the world like eyes regarding the world from a rock face.

Copyright Lisa Schnebly Heidinger 2011

Soul Food

by Julie Morrison

When the unknown smacks,

Anxiety slices—wielding lists,

schedules, spreadsheets—

until, confused and cold cut,

my sanity cracks to shards,

snacks for metrics

already convinced

I won’t measure up.

Next, my soul gnaws,

gnashes at its own ripeness,

because—it figures—

control is consuming its own spirit

rather than have it serve

to satiate something else.

Funny - just a moment ago

I fed it breath and belief

in goodness

as continuous buffet,

inviting, gracing, nourishing,

having—at least—something

for us,

and it’s this faith, now,

choosing to be fed

or fed on.

Copyright 2025 Julie Morrison, All rights reserved