Rachel’s Knoll

In our quest to acquire a bit of beauty for ourselves we have a tendency to destroy it.  I am sitting on Rachel’s Knoll in Sedona, Arizona.  A friend told me about it but it is not like she once knew it.  There is such beauty in the ancient red rocks that surround the knoll.  This has been a sacred place for people for a very long time.

Now there is a golf course below and homes all around.  There in even a home on the knoll.  A development company bought up the surrounding land.  For a while they blocked access to the knoll even though they had agreed to keep it open.  It is open again after a successful lawsuit by Rachel’s children.  We had to go through a gate where there is a guard who questioned us about whether we had been to Rachel’s knoll before.  No.  How did we know about it?  This is private property.  We didn't let him discourage us and he let us in.

Two small tours have been up here since we arrived.  The guide now sitting near me appears to be Native American (maybe Hopi from what he said).  According to him the area in front of us is known as Seven Sacred Canyons.  For some reason, he says, the developers chopped off the “sacred” part of the name and call it Seven Canyons.  To me it is obvious.  This area is not sacred to them—they only see money.  The guide is saying that all human life has a link to this place according to the people who have the longest history here.  This means that we are all connected.  When he first walked up he commented that he doesn’t see the golf course anymore.  It will be gone one day when the water dries up.  It will all go back to the way it was.

I hope he is right.  The buildings, the manicured grass, and the noise of the weed whackers are so out of place.  Rachel’s knoll transcends time and it belongs to us all, a sacred spot.

Written on 10/29/2014