Field Notes from the Grand Canyon: Raging
River, Quiet Mind, by Teresa Jordan, Johnson Books, 1880
S. 57th Court, Boulder, CO 80301, 2000. Paperback:
$14.
“There is a Zen saying that when the student
is ready, the teacher is there,” writes Teresa Jordan, who had
carried her watercolors on a dozen different trips, never to wet a
brush. But a 12-day raft trip down the Colorado River was
different. The world of obligations, deadlines and busyness fell
away and Jordan, who has written books about her ranching family
and the cowgirl tradition, focused on nothing but the moment,
beginning with a thunderstorm that spawned hundreds of ephemeral
waterfalls. “I had gone to the river hungry for adventure,” she
confesses. “I returned nourished in a hundred different ways.” Her
little book – an illustrated journal – is a delight.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Raging river, quiet mind.
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