Naseem Rakha's Blog
RSS
Apr.19.2013
I am not watching the news. Not following #manhunt tweets. Or #bostonbombs. I did have on NPR for a while, but turned it off when some reporter questioned why Obama had not yet spoke today, three days after two bombs exploded at the Boston Marathon.
"People need to hear from their leader,"...
Continue Reading »
Apr.09.2013
My experiences related to the canyon have been on the order of a spiritual awakening which has left me as porous as the canyon's sedimentary strata, where rain water cleaves and carves and emerges later as beautiful clear springs.
I take power naps. Total shutdowns that last twenty minutes—max. I...
Continue Reading »
Mar.11.2013
I am in a train going south from Seattle, Washington to Oregon, and this is what I see.
Stacks of lumber and lines of trucks.
Piles of rebar and blocks of concrete.
Downed trees and over-grown blackberries.
Water slick roads. Break lights. Trash. Rain.
It was sunny in...
Continue Reading »
Mar.07.2013
I got home to Oregon on Sunday, and do you know what was there? The sun.
Yes, my husband and my son were there too, but the surprising member of the 'Welcome back from the Grand Canyon party' was the big guy in the sky. Sun. Sunshine. Warmth and all its perks: scents of spring, daffodils, crocuses...
Continue Reading »
Feb.22.2013
More photos from this walk at The Quiet
Snow is falling at the Grand Canyon right now, and it is—quiet.
A cushioned cloister of snow-soft sounds. A feather-world of silent flakes. A hush, a whisper, a kiss.
And I think, I love snow. I love its padded footsteps, a cat on a carpet....
Continue Reading »
Feb.20.2013
On Sunday, I had the opportunity to go for a walk with my friend Jeff who lives on the Navajo Reservation. His home, an Airstream parked across from the Cameron Trading Post, sits near the Little Colorado River in Cameron, Arizona. So that's where we hiked: into the drainage and then up...
Continue Reading »
Feb.17.2013
Did you ever see that video of a baby elephant playing in the waves at the ocean? It is the happiest animal on planet Earth, except for me- yesterday - hiking into the Grand Canyon with Ranger Kristi Rugg, or as I think of her - Wiki - as in Wikipedia. Her knowledge of the canyon is...
Continue Reading »
Feb.14.2013
From my window I can see a father holding his child and pointing out at the Grand Canyon. Only there is nothing to see. Only vast gray clouds, as opaque as a woolen blanket, but not at all warm. The child is dressed in red. Red boots, red coat, red hat covering her red cheeks and nose. I'm not...
Continue Reading »
Feb.09.2013
The man sitting next to me is half naked. I am sitting in El Tovar’s Bar on the edge of the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, working on my novel, when he comes wearing nothing but a shirt and jacket, and then sits down right beside me. I keep writing, noticing him only like a moth might notice there...
Continue Reading »
Feb.07.2013
Mandela Leola van Eeden at North Canyon mile 20.5
A memory—Mile 62 on the Colorado. We had rafted the "Roaring Twenties," hiked through a downpour in Saddle Canyon, meditated (and played Frisbee) in Red Wall Cavern, and now are at the confluence of the Little Colorado, a tropical-blue...
Continue Reading »
Feb.05.2013
The first thing I did when I got to the Grand Canyon was fall. Not into the "abyss" - or I wouldn't be writing this. My spill was in the bathroom. Actually, in the kitchen coming out of the bathroom. The apartment I'm in has two steep steps linking the rooms and I entirely forgot about them and...
Continue Reading »
Feb.02.2013
I arrived at the Grand Canyon yesterday afternoon. Alone. Just me and my car and my guitar and computer and paint and canvases and Oscar and Kea my stuffed creatures. And here's the thing. As I pulled up to the entrance and the Ranger leaned in toward the car to ask for my permit, I chocked...
Continue Reading »
Feb.01.2013
I knew soon as I got in my car that I would not make it to Williams, Arizona that night. That was my plan, Williams by 6 PM. But I had made that plan while sitting in my kitchen at home in Oregon. Not in a hotel parking-lot off of Hwy 395 in Carson City, Nevada. In Carson City, Nevada, Hwy...
Continue Reading »
Jan.31.2013
Mt. Shasta, from I5.
Well, I got off to a late start, and I stopped about 40 minutes into the drive to call CarToys to figure out how to connect Pandora up to my spiffy new stereo system, and I5 was jammed with oversized semi's hauling what looked like parts for a nuclear reactor, but I...
Continue Reading »
Jan.31.2013
Mt. Shasta, from I5.
Well, I got off to a late start, and I stopped about 40 minutes into the drive to call CarToys to figure out how to connect Pandora up to my spiffy new stereo system, and I5 was jammed with oversized semi's hauling what looked like parts for a nuclear reactor, but I...
Continue Reading »
About Naseem
Naseem Rakha is an award winning author and journalist whose stories have been heard on National Public Radio. Her international best selling debut novel, The Crying Tree, has received the 2010 PNBA Award. She lives in Silverton, Oregon with her husband, son...
Connections
Naseem’s Favorite Books
A Place on Earth By Wendell Berry, Eventide By Kent Haruf, Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey, To Kill a Mockingbird By Harper Lee, Snow Falling an Cedars...