I am grateful for the meditative words that came to me as I hiked in Embudito Canyon, a place in the foothills of the Sandia Mountains that rise up east of Albuquerque, New Mexico. I chanted these words with every step of my descent on the trail.

Embudito Canyon

I am one with all that is.
I am the glory and the beauty of God.

I am the crunch
of the gravel on the path. I am the color
of the lichen on the rock.
I am the texture
of the granite boulders and the brightness
of each cactus bloom.

I am the song
of the bird on the branch. I am the buzz
of the fly nearby.
I am the whisper of the breeze in my ear
and the shadow and the sun
and the sound of the sky.

I am one with all that is.
I am the glory and the beauty of God.