According to historians, one of the first Europeans to enter the geographical area now called Arizona, in the 1550’s, was Spanish explorer Coronado (birth name Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, which roughly translates to “man who rides a horse while natives carry his stuff”). As my family and I moved north in our rental car toward the south rim of the Grand Canyon a few years back, this was a fascinating piece of history upon which to ruminate.
While I’m not much of an outdoorsman, it’s in those moments I can really feel a kinship with people like Coronado. I can begin to imagine what it was like as he and his travel companions began to witness the majesty and unravel the mystery of the truly breathtaking American west.
I can see it so clearly in my mind: Coronado and his party cresting the top of a rise, gazing down at the magnificence of miles and miles of unbroken desert, land spotted indefinitely with majestic, almost otherworldly flora. I witness the tears filling his eyes as he takes it all in, ingests with all senses the previously unimaginable natural phenomena that lies before him.
And it is as if I’m standing next to him, hand reaching through time to rest upon his shoulder, when, from behind him, a voice rings out, “Dad, you said we could get food. We just passed a McDonald’s! I’m starving....Daaaaaaaad!”
Thanks for reading! May your day be filled with the joy of experiencing new things, and patience when that joy is inevitably interrupted.
