Pay Attention to the Vertical

In Albuquerque NM visiting SW Acupuncture College, I had planned to stop in Taos for awhile. Something changed my mind. Instead I went to Los Alamos.

This painting is leaving Los Alamos, heading west into the Jemez Mountains where I went for a long hike by myself up into a Juniper forest. I stopped just past a stream for to meditate and rest a bit. I fell asleep and when I awoke the sky had changed. The air had changed. It was pregnant. Oh my it is going to snow. I better book.

When I reached the car, my glasses fell apart and one lens fell into my hand. Mind you this wasn't out in the woods. It was in the car. Somehow I put the lens into the frame and was able to drive down into Jemez Springs where there is an incredible spa with hot, healing water. I got a massage and a meal and when I started back, the rain started.

Now I had done some research in NYC and gotten a contact person ahead of time in Los Alamos to attend a meeting if I wanted. I had called the night before and been told where the meeting was in town. As I was driving down Route 4 the rain intensified. By one of the big mesas, the sky opened for a moment and ethereal light poured through and then shut off and the rain was immense. I got to Los Alamos and realized I had no real idea where I was. The directions, as they do, had no meaning in the heavy rain and the dark.

I was lost. I pulled into the parking lot of an apartment complex and drove through a couple of sections of the lot and pulled into a spot and got out of the car to get oriented. Another car pulled up next to me. A man got out. He said "You're Jon Tupper aren't you." I said, "Well, yes, I am." He said "Follow me."

We went into a comfortable modest apartment and talked about truth and consequences.

Years later, in Orange County NY, because of meeting my friend and brother Dennis B., I had begun to do volunteer work at Mid Orange Correctional Facility.

I thought I'd bring them some wisdom. Ha! What arrogance.
They were allowing me to participate in their healing.
One night a man came in with a really silly grin; he was singing and dancing, yeah, just like Mr. Bojangles. Jimmy Do said "meet Carmine."

Every week, same deal.
At first I just thought he was nuts.
We began to talk though and he listened to me talk about what I thought was going on in the world.

He said "You pay too much attention to the horizontal. The world has always been, is now and always will be corrupt and filled with betrayal and deceit. Pay attention to the vertical, to the Divine, to the Light Of Christ."

That my friends is a daily walk.
I still sometimes pay too much attention to the vertical.
Not tonight though.
Not tonight.

Four inches of snow fell in Los Alamos that night.
Next day I went for a hike in Bayo Canyon to take some photos.
The lady at the B&B said "Just follow the wagon tracks from the last century and you won't get lost." I got lost; there was a series of intersecting loops and I couldn't tell where I was.

So, I did what the guys at the meetings told me to do: I asked for help.
Within ten seconds, two people with a beautiful golden retriever appeared up ahead.
I walked toward them and said I'm lost. Where do you want to go? On the loop or back to the cars? I walked back with them to the cars.

To top all of this off, these folks had been major league anti nuclear folk in Berkeley in the late 60's and had lived in a big commune in the desert in southern NM.

Now, they were both working at the Los Alamos Lab in Nuclear Non-Proliferation.
Grace.
All these God-Instances, formerly known as coincidences are simply Grace.
No thing else.
It behooves me to be grateful.
This is only the start of the story.