As I sat peaceful and well rested at dawn this morning, safely perched on the 16th floor of my Hotel in El Paso, TX; I looked out over the dim myriad of twinkling lights that is the Mexican sister city of Juarez just blocks away. The sun was beginning to rise over the desert plateaus of west Texas, illuminating the simple dwellings and smog that shrouds the valley. Above, Venus and all her glory; to the North, a full moon reflecting its grace over the International border – a line between two starkly different countries – its seperation point a cement culvert that hems in the trickle of the Rio Grande; fences and cement the division between cities. I center my energy and settle into meditation as light begins to cascade across my view corridor.
My mind is cluttered… As the previous day has revealed, El Paso and Juarez has its rugged beauty but behind the adobe and red brick there is also its struggle and toil. Many of the residents are hardworking folks grinding out a life under the rocky shadows of the Sierra Madre Occidental Mountains. Across the border, the scope of hardship is magnified many times over: Poverty and plight; innocent people caught in the cross fire of a drug cartel war that leaves on average 8 people dead a day.
My mind shifts to the victims and folks dealing with the aftermath of Sandy… My thoughts go out to all of you…
Sometimes, meditation comes easy; other times it can be difficult like this morning. Like clouds obscuring blue skies, the solace is knowing the sun will shine again; even for those suffering amidst the rising desert sun or the storm ravaged coast miles away…
John C. Bader
El Paso is where I was born and raised – a rough city but, like the surrounding desert, in possession of real beauty when you see past the sun and the dirt. I used to go out past the city limits on the east side of town to meditate and target practice (I guess it’s a West Texas thing) in the desert, and living where I now live, I have to say I sometimes find it a lot harder to find my inner balance here in a city with no guns or cartel presence than I did in El Paso. The warm breeze in the desert was often enough the only reply I would get to the questions my mind would pose while trying to meditate, and it always seemed so soothing, like a patient sigh of Nature.
I thought it was interesting that no matter where you were in El Paso, Juarez was looking at you with its sad, pale face. It was weird to see department stores and just three blocks away across a cement river was suffering… The surrounding desert was surreal! Thanks for your reply.