{"id":1852,"date":"2017-12-18T07:16:28","date_gmt":"2017-12-18T12:16:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/?p=1852"},"modified":"2020-02-11T07:17:37","modified_gmt":"2020-02-11T12:17:37","slug":"australia-trip-sacred","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/australia-trip-sacred\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia Trip: Sacred"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>Everywhere I went in the first half of November \u2013 Melbourne, Adelaide, Alice Springs, Cairns, and Sydney \u2013 Christmas decorations were springing up. In Australia there\u2019s no Thanksgiving to buffer the way into the holidays. All the sparkle and flash of the upcoming season suddenly hit me. Hard. But it had no spiritual significance to me.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always wanted something in my life to mean more, to mean everything. To be sacred. The closest I ever get to sacred is when I\u2019m hiking. Especially in mountains. Or by the sea. Walking where people have walked for eons. To me, rock that\u2019s been tread down, paths worn bare, and ancient places that have drawn wanderers forever, are holy.<\/span><\/p>\n

It took all of Day 10 to travel by bus from Alice Springs to Uluru<\/a> aka Ayers Rock, a big rock in the middle of the desert. I was bummed because I\u2019d dressed expecting sun and heat. But it was raining. Drizzling on and off. Downright gloomy. Just my luck to come to the desert in Australia in late spring-almost summer, and it rains.<\/span><\/p>\n

From a distance, the rock looked like a massive meatloaf. Only majestic. Monumental. Mesmerizing. Even from far off, the sandstone monolith seemed to have some ancient mystical spirit pulsing within. Nothing else was anywhere near. How could that rock NOT be sacred to the indigenous Anangu, or to anyone in this desert? \u201cThe home of the culture of the world\u2019s oldest culture, it means everything to the indigenous people,\u201d said the literature we\u2019d been handed.<\/span><\/p>\n

We were to watch the setting sun bounce rays off the rock\u2019s surface. Only \u2013 there was no sun. It was cold and dismal. Still, we \u201crugged up\u201d in every bit of warm clothing we could find, and headed out on the bus. \u201cYou never know what you\u2019ll get,\u201d our tour leader said.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the site it was pouring. I pulled up my hood and hurried to the huge tent that had been set up over tables of champagne, smoked salmon, veggies with dip, cheese and fresh fruits. At least I wouldn\u2019t go hungry. Along with hiking, food is my religion. I stuffed myself, and hardly looked at the sacred Uluru rock. Until somebody yelled, Miracle!<\/span><\/p>\n

Gulping down the champagne, I grabbed a last piece of salmon. Outside people were hollering, \u201cDouble rainbow! Over the rock, it\u2019s a miracle!\u201d I crept out of the tent and joined the crowd that was now scrambling every which way in the finest drizzle, to capture rainbows on cameras and cellphones. An eerie light lit up the rock and the landscape around it. Two rainbows ended at the rock. The sacred place. I stood there trying to focus my camera, through tears. Remembering how rainbows meant everything to my girl. My Marika. Who I pray to, now. Who I\u2019d asked ten days before, \u201cYou\u2019re coming with me to Australia, right?\u201d Who is forevermore, Somewhere Over the Rainbow.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What is sacred to you? What do you look for when you travel?<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Everywhere I went in the first half of November – Melbourne, Adelaide, Alice Springs, Cairns, and Sydney – Christmas decorations were springing up. In Australia there’s no Thanksgiving to buffer the way into the holidays. All the sparkle and flash of the upcoming season suddenly hit me. Hard. But it had no spiritual significance to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1062],"tags":[95,1357,1424,1425,1421,1420,1423,1422],"class_list":["post-1852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1062","tag-miracle","tag-australia","tag-double-rainbow","tag-food-is-my-religion","tag-sacred-place","tag-spirituality","tag-sunset-at-ayers-rock","tag-uluru"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1852\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robinbotie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}