Desert and Ashes

This last weekend, I took a group of 11 students to experience some solitude in the desert (in Central Oregon).  As it turns out the place I picked for us to disperse in the desert had burned in a wildfire less than two weeks ago.  So wandering in the fierce landscape, smelling the charred sagebrush, and sensing a still-warm earth added an other-worldly sense to this already remote scene.  On top of that, we found many skeletons of animals who had apparently been caught in the fire.

There was also a cliff we later approached and the scenery was quite evocative.  We turned over stones while the sparse landscape also provoked internal turning of stones.  Difficult, but rewarding time in the desert.  I said the landscape seemed other-worldly?  But was it?  Desert, fire, death, emptiness are part of this world, but it says something about the infrequency with which I experience desert in a culture of excess.  I want to return and spend more time there--and observe it in other seasons as well.