January 2016

Though words, and even pictures, can not begin to describe this cave they call Paradise in Phong Nha National Park in Vietnam, I am compelled to share this photo. We walked a kilometre into the mountain – underground into the mountain. People in this inner cavity spoke in hushed tones, and I can only think that it was the immensity of space and the surreal formations that caused a sense of awed worship. It is impossible to me to fathom the millennia it took for these stalagmites and stalactites to form, one drop at a time. It felt like a secret revealed. Inside the mountain I experienced an awareness that, in the heartbeat that is my life coming and going, I do not even truly exist, certainly not as separate from this continuing ribbon of being.