{"id":715,"date":"2010-12-03T20:47:43","date_gmt":"2010-12-03T20:47:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/apagansblog\/2010\/12\/culture-shock.html"},"modified":"2010-12-03T20:47:43","modified_gmt":"2010-12-03T20:47:43","slug":"culture-shock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/12\/culture-shock.html","title":{"rendered":"Culture Shock"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

It’s been hard to concentrate on this blog since I returned
\nfrom Utah.  Really hard.  <\/span>While the trip, like
\nany trip with a 9 year old, was not without its aggravations, being immersed in
\nsuch powerful, beautiful and peaceful land was a kind of spiritual balm.  <\/span>I set aside thinking about politics and
\nkeeping up with the daily news, in favor of immersing myself in the energies of
\nsky and stone, river and rain, juniper and pine, rain and snow.  <\/span>Washington, DC, seemed on another planet,
\nas energetically it is.  <\/span>Even Pagan
\npersonalities, politics, and philosophy seemed far off compared to hiking
\nacross slick rock benches to gaze at soaring arches or looking down and up and
\nout from atop sheer canyon walls or watching clouds and snow flurries caress the La Salles<\/a>. 
\n<\/span>Letting the energy of the land sweep through me, healing and nourishing.  <\/span>The high Southwest has always caused my
\nsoul to soar.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n

Returning was a kind of culture shock.  <\/span>It was wonderful to see my friends and
\nnot so wonderful to be back in what passes for civilization.  <\/span><\/p>\n

I’d like to become a hermit, but I care about people too
\nmuch. I’d miss my friends and get lonely. If I could take my friends with me I’d never come back. <\/span><\/p>\n

But for some reason they have lives of their own. <\/p>\n

So here I am.  <\/span>But I’m sure sympathetic to Ed Abbey.<\/a><\/p>\n

I have all these notes I made mostly immediately upon
\nreturning, notes on Las Vegas, America, and the canyon country, notes on
\nfriendly Mormons and how time changes on the trail and then energy of the
\nland.  <\/span>Eventually more of them will
\nget into this blog. But oddly while I’ve been writing as much or more than
\never, it has not been about current events, Pagan or otherwise.  <\/span>It’s been on bigger themes, ones that
\nprovide the context through which we look at daily events.  <\/span><\/p>\n

I needed to step back from things to find the time to get a
\nbreath, separate myself from the mix of misery, pain, and despair that so often
\nseems the only sane response to current events.  <\/span>My trip certainly helped me do that, but A Pagan’s Blog has
\nnot been the beneficiary so far.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s been hard to concentrate on this blog since I returned from Utah.  Really hard.  While the trip, like any trip with a 9 year old, was not without its aggravations, being immersed in such powerful, beautiful and peaceful land was a kind of spiritual balm.  I set aside thinking about politics and keeping up with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[112,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nature","category-personal"],"yoast_head":"\nCulture Shock - A Pagan's Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/12\/culture-shock.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Culture Shock - 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