![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.nowforourturn.org\/CosmicReflections\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/DSC091752.jpg\" "\\"DSC09175\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nI\u2019d even bought myself a ring, a small band of white and yellow gold, to signify my commitment. As I slipped it on my finger, I had not yet hiked down among the colorful formations. There was no chance to do so back then, when I was enroute from my first interim ministry, in Nevada, to my second one in Vermont. Since then, I\u2019ve served four other congregations in transition, from Colorado to Arizona to South Carolina to Maine.
\nHaving awakened to the human impact on the environment while living in Las Vegas, I chose interim positions that would take me to a variety of ecosystems across this America the Beautiful. Alternately awed and appalled over the years, I was now back at this place, as if to give an accounting.
\nYet this time I am not alone; a life partner accompanies me into the canyon down a steep trail with a deep descent. Milt tries to take pictures, but can\u2019t get the whole of the rock formations into the frame at the same time.
\n\u201cToo big; too big,\u201d he keeps muttering in exasperation. \u201cTo fail, to fail,\u201d I keep adding, like an echo.<\/p>\n
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\nFor after all, we are carefully making our way down a trail that winds through enclosing walls of towering hoodoos; in fact, this section is officially called Wall Street! We laugh at the irony\u2026and marvel at how closed in we feel: we can barely get a glimpse of the brilliant blue sky growing higher above us, distorting our perception and blocking out a wider perspective.<\/p>\n