The Universal Mother

The ninth of May was Mothers Day...the day of Universal Motherhood.  At the Ahwahnee so many people wished me Happy Mothers Day that my head was literally swimming.  So many people gave me hugs and smiles I was feeling like a squished fish.  I wished so many Mothers and Mothers to be a Happy Mothers day that I was beginning to feel like a recorded message.  Then I realized something.

Every woman in the Universe is a mother or a potential mother or a mother in the making and we introduce each other to the myriad facets of Motherhood and natural nuturing processes over time.  Motherhood may be in our genes, however we acquire the talent and the gifts over time and education in order to be mothers of the world.  Being a mother is more than giving birth to humans.

On this specially created day of mothers, I realized that ever since I have come to Yosemite National Park to work that I have been blessed by superior management of self realization...a gift that has absolutely nothing to do with what one may do for a normal work day, but everything to do with what one does for personal development.  However in my case it has been given as an extraordinary insight from special individual persons.


The role of a woman in this society and others is basically that of a home maker or home worker.  We have inherited certain specific tasks and functions to make our world more harmonious and peaceful.  Some of these point source tasks are tending our gardens, watering our flowers, raking our leaves, cleaning our paths, throwing out the trash, and those are inside or outside or our homes.  On the inside of our homes we do the laundry, iron the clothes, hang the clothes up, fetch the linens, make the beds, vacumn the floors, clean up the bathrooms, scrub the tubs, the toilets,  and throw out the accumulated trash.  In our kitchens we select what we will eat, we cook, we clean dishes, and we socialize with others in our household.  Inadvertently we clock in and clock out of our various ADL's...our activities of daily living.  We take note of each others behaviours, and we list our daily activities and we run checks on how we do each day, both for our own personal evaluation and for the sake of our smooth operating homes.  We tend to each others needs in many ways as we move about our homes.


With a sudden sense of clarity, I realized that my manager at work has placed me in all the capacities and functions listed above.  I have become by function and duty A MOTHER of the Ahwahnee Hotel.  Of course I am not sure this is intentional, however it is a point in fact and for this I am eternally grateful.  While this Mothering quality was hidden inside of an occupational task it has become a point of sensitive realization and has taught me a lesson that through a sense of a mothers duty to like myself and my soul.  That you ladies, daughters and other mothers of my universe!

These are the Anthuriums and grow in pots.  They enjoy moisture and find growth where ever they find light. By their existance they help humans manager their own lives and make a day more beautiful.  Happy Mothers Day!

Heavy Waters

Every time I take one of these photos on my camera phone I do not adjust the light.  So when I take a look and see a photo like this I am astounded by the lightening because I had nothing to do with it.  This prevalent yellow glow, described by many as the light of the angels always shows up in my photos.  I often wonder if other photographers develop the same types of images, in particular the ones showing the "angel lights"?


When Mr. Underwood developed the architectural drawings for the Ahwahnee he created a true and natural cross that extends from the Fireplace One position in the Elevator Lobby to the Solarium Room at the far end, with the cross tie being the Winter Club Room to the Mural Room.  If one were to imagine the surreal side of this idea, coupling the two social religious constructs together i.e., a cross and the angelic glow, you may imagine the existence of some extraordinary spiritual entity taking up perpetual residence inside the Ahwahnee Hotel.

This is a view of Fireplace Two of the Great Lounge of the Ahwahnee Hotel.  The green tree is a Norfolk Island Pine.  They grow in the Rainforests of New Zealand.
What are they doing in Yosemite National Park?  Why they are part of our Christmas celebration and a lasting and beautiful living decoration for the Hotel.  The air in the Hotel is a bit on the dry side and the tree needs to be misted and watered somewhat, on a daily basis.  Our guests are greatly attracted to these beautiful trees.  We had many inquiries as to the type and the desire for future home purchase for home gardens.


However you might note the same telltale angelic glow, as well as the neon lavender glow from the light surrounding the fireplace fire.  

Here is another example of the angelic glow cast upon this black and white photograph.  This was a mode of travel to and from Yosemite in the early 1930's and for a few years following.  The angelic glow is host to many excited travelers and it lives on casting its hovering spirit into eternity.  Perhaps that sounds like too much hocus pocus, or dreamers talk, nonetheless, I can not deny that everywhere this glow exists throughout the hotel and often beyond.  Some will say it is photo magic, or over exposure or perhaps even bad photography.  As for me and my images, I claim they capture more than the eye can see and more than more than our earth bound intellects understand.

The Development of the Socially Conscious

Our human species assumes we know everything when we are born.  This statement is a general assumption of course, because not everyone assumes this.  However, have you ever heard a mother speak to her toddler as though she thinks the toddler understands precisely what she is saying and as yet the toddler has not even learned how to say mother or father or its own name.  Yet the mother will insist, "I told you not to do that.  Why don't you ever listen.  Don't you understand...etc."  If you are privileged to stand and observe this type of behavior occuring between mother and toddler, you will see the toddler roll up his tiny hands and stuff them into its eye sockets and the tear will roll.  Why?  Because, the toddler feels the sound of the voice and feels the anger from its mother, but very possibly does not understand...the toddler was just born into the world perhaps 18 months prior, so how could it know?  but we of the human species assume the toddler knows everything!  


We get dumped into this world of ours with certain sensory devices, seeing, hearing, making sounds, feeling, tasting and so on and from those  senses we begin to build our world.  We begin to construct from our environment the information we need to know to survive in it.  The greater degree of environmental intelligence we surround ourselves with or were blessed with upon birth, the better our ability to accumulate and absorb our encumbering world.  We interact with where we are at, no matter where or what it may be;  this movable and creative ability can be a continual inspiration to all humans


The best thing about humans is that we are LEARNERS.  And as such we continually put together and process information in order to create more liveable circumstances for ourselves and the lives of other people.  We may be bound by certain rules and regulations, however those same rules and regulations give us the opportunities to continue developing human social consciousness.  This constant wave of human development is an elemental factor in electronic wave rolling that moves through sky, water and earth in a similar never ceasing motion.  We humans are part of this process and absorb and feel this environmental wave, although we are contained and held in place by other physical laws of our known universe.

Many people I have met in Yosemite National Park refer to it as Yosemite University because of the opportunity for humans to absorb, assimilate and interact with our basic elemental creations.  Some of these would include: the forests, the rocks, the water,  the creatures that call Yosemite home, and the humans that have invited themselves into Yosemite to share in its natural environmental processes.  The Yosemite Park itself is a teacher, and one that carries the natural credentials of the universe.  If you are a student, open to the call of the wild and the way in which natural processes are created, then you will discover the endless phenomena of 360 degrees of educational process.  However you may have to step outside of your car to do this, or exit your tent and breathe the crisp air, or take a hike where 7-11 does not exist, you may have to stretch your limbs in unimaginable ways in order to climb up granite walls, you may have to leave no trace that you were ever here.


As we press forward with the idea of SHARED living environments we are taught by our experiences that we are not alone in this universe and that we must accommodate living entities that exist on trillions of levels, from small floating sightless ocean creatures in the depths of the sea, to high circling eagles air borne above the clouds where no man can fly because man does not have wings, and with each other human that we see or do not see. "For those things we have done and for those things we have failed to do."  In order to continue life we are indeed burdened by brotherhood, however we should develop good social consciousness and nonetheless not lend ourselves to exploitation, and yet not exploit our environment and so we see our mathematical dilemma... it may be that we press on, living close to the edge, in order to be born again, and yet again, so that we finally understand that each birth is a new realization and the beginning of yet another wave of awakening.

Ahwahnee Weddings

Today we had weddings.  Three weddings throughout the day.  It was a perfect day for glorious weddings with happy brides and handsome grooms.  What a place for a wedding, beneath spectacular skies,  towering granite walls dripping with spring snow melt, pines, and cedars and fir swaying gently in the wind, pale blue sky graced by puffy cotton clouds, and air so pure and brisk it sweeps right through your body.


This photo was taken this winter on the wedding lawn.  Believe it or not the wedding was held on the fresh fallen snow and the guests sat on the white chairs while the bride and groom declared their love for each other.  They might have gotten a little shaky before the ceremony was over...since the temperature was about 30 something at the time.


It is interesting that guests for weddings in an outdoor setting dress according to the weather, however, the bride seldom ever does.  Many brides during the outdoor service dress as though they were inside in front of the fireplace, all cozy and warm...however, sleeveless wedding dresses are not warm and yet the brides tend to never feel the weather.  I suspect they are too excited and happy to notice the temperature.


There is a spiritual awakening outside under the cliffs, trees and sky...something totally elemental about the natural influences of the area.  Everyone declares the unseen presence is alive and watching over us.  Many people feel this presence and I would suppose that when a minister is standing in front of you and reading the wedding ceremony, God must be floating about high above and listening to every one of the human thoughts.


Or maybe it is the squirrels in the trees or the deer in the bushes or the bear in the blackberries.  Or maybe it is that we are inside of a container of granite walls and we feel secure and protected and so we think all is well...


We are in a space in time that is over 104 million years old...more or less.  Certainly we are surrounded by walls that speak to us and light that is refracting and reflecting in many dimensions unknown in other areas of the earth.  Perhaps we are part of an experience that is unworldly and are not even aware of it.   We are all part of some greater experience and as we touch our tasks or our duties, then we reverbrate our experience to one another and thus we create our creations and those leap forward and so on and on.

No matter where a wedding is held, it is special.  Frank Sinatra had four major weddings; Nancy, Ava, Mia, and Barbara.  They were all spectacular ceremonies, although he never made it to Yosemite, nor did he make it to the Ahwahnee.  However President Kennedy did, as well as Queen Elizabeth.  Each wedding that Frank Sinatra had was lavishly planned and perfectly performed.  He created quite the luxurious style of weddings throughout his life and career.  It greatly influenced the wedding preference of the American Culture throughout the 40s, the 60s, the 70s and the 80s.  Every woman wanted the diamonds, the furs, and the commitment.  In 2010 we are observing a resurgence of the wealth inspired weddings of the late 40s, with the little woman being catered to, however the little woman of 2010, now has a doctorate and a career and stands steady alongside her husband.

After the wedding ceremony the bride and groom and their party retires into the hotel where generous portions of gourmet food is specially served in the manner fit of any queen or president past or present.  The private party is out of sight and beyond the curtains tucked comfortably in the solarium where sunlight dances in grand display upon the Glacier Points majestic and mighty cliffs and the newly weds life is blessed as it passes from one moment of heavenly experience back into the reality of the human cultural expression.