March 26, 1995: What a great day. I woke up late but went to Sedona anyway and hiked Boynton Canyon. Up with my back against a wall at the end of the canyon, I see black swirling blobs in the sky moving in and out and twirling like a kaleidoscope pattern..with my eyes open. Then I see sparkles in the air and aura-like light around the rocks. Wow.

I climb down a bit lower so I can sit in the sun, and notice a man is hiking up into the back of the box canyon with a Native American flute wrapped in a protective hide. He climbs up high where I've just been sitting and starts playing a haunting melody. How magical. I am being treated to a concert in a natural amphitheater while three ravens circle overhead. The place is pulsing with energy and even the creatures come to watch. A ringtail cat visits nearby and the squirrels are chattering in the pines.

On the way out I notice there are so many bees buzzing around in the manzanita bushes. Bees, bees, bees, I guess I need to learn some bee lessons. "Bee yourself!" as the genie says in Disney's Aladdin! I have to laugh. Boynton is sweet balm for the spirit.

Late 1997: Oh my, I nearly died today. Well that is a bit melodramatic but the hike to the upper ruins in Boynton brought me face to face with fear. "Follow me," a wiry young woman told me, and so I did. She led us along the cliffside ledge, through a hole in the rock and up to a climb on a sheer cliffside. Still I was OK until we got to the final scramble into the ruins.

Where on earth was I to grab hold of the rock? I have not been trained in climbing. "Hug the rocks," my new friend tells me after scaling the wall like a graceful mountain lion. By this time, I am plastered onto the cliffside with my feet on a three quarter inch niche, and my hands hanging on for dear life, praying out loud. "Hold me rocks," I'm begging while shaking and scrambling all at once. In just five minutes I make it to the top and lean up against the rock wall to steady myself, catch my breath, and still my pounding heart. How incredibly rewarding it is to face such a challenge but how terrifying! I swear to myself that I will never do this again, but really, who am I fooling? The place is alive.