The Grand Canyon

I recently had a chance to go on a trip down the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. The trip was for ten days and covered over 225 miles of river from Lee's Ferry to Diamond Creek on the Hualapai Reservation. It was my second trip to go with the Hualapai Cultural Department down the river. I knew the Cultural Department was having a hard time filling the spots they had for the trip. I kept letting them know that I could find somebody to fill one of the seats so it wouldn't be wasted and I could definitely use the help with performing my job with them which was to shoot a documentary of the trip. I started inviting family members and close friends to see who might be available to go with me if I got the go ahead from the tribe at the last minute.

Numerous family members wished they could come, but like all of us had jobs, school, family, other responsibilities, etc. But, I wasn't going to give up and I continued to make calls, send out texts, and emails, trying to be prepared if I did get the thumbs up to bring someone along. I've been able to have some amazing experiences with my work over the last few years and sometimes feel sad that I can't share these with family. I really wanted someone in my family or extended family to share some of these experiences with me this time.

A few days go by and I did get the call late in the afternoon, a few hours before we were to meet up in Flagstaff at 7am. So there were more frantic calls and emails and finally I was able to get one of my brother in laws to go with me, Sam Henderson. I was glad to have someone related along for the adventure. Someone else who would be able to see and experience what I would be experiencing. I was happy for the help and for the opportunity he would have to see and experience some amazing things.

The trip started and not long after it got under way something really hit me. I realized that if Dad was alive, he would be on this trip with me. He would have dropped whatever he was doing, like so many other times in my life that he did, and come along for the fun, for the work, and for another memory. When these thoughts came I was a little emotional. I know he would have come with me. It would have been another great memory to have with my father one I would have cherished forever.

And as the trip went on, more thoughts came and went. Dad was with me on the trip, maybe not every second or every moment that happened along the way, but at certain times he was with me. I don't know exactly how things work on the other side of the vail, but I know he did experience some of the trip with me in one way or another.

There are days that go by that I honestly probably don't think of Dad much, days that are so busy and hard and hectic that it's all I can do to stay afloat. And there are other days where I want to call him, want to talk with him, want to see him, but I can't, or at least it seems that way. It's really hard at times, and at other times it's not so difficult.

I guess what I'm getting at is that just because he physically is out of our lives for the time being, it won't always be that way, and it doesn't have to be that way now. I hope we don't forget him. I hope we don't forget the strengths he had that can help move us to action, to be successful. I hope we don't forget some of his weakness as well to help us to want to be better, to realize how short life really is and what's really important along the journey. And most importantly I hope we don't forget how much he loved and still loves us.

He can be a part of our lives, today. I have just felt it numerous times along a cold river at the bottom of the big 'ol Grand Canyon.