Loving the Desert

The first time I encountered the desert was in 1997 - just after graduating from Harvard. I did a road trip with a galfriend to Arizona, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico. This trip was a defining moment in my life. For a gal brought up in a tiny city-state-country like Singapore, the vast plains and desert landscapes were deeply inspiring and invigorating. We drove for hours on end on empty stretches of long straight desert roads singing along to American radio. It felt like we owned the world. The desert mountains and wide big big sky was inspiring, empowering and ancient. Monument Valley, Mezza Verde, Havasupai, Sedonna and Antelope Canyon blew my mind away. There was something raw, true and powerful in the history, size and silent landscapes of these intense desert terrain. I felt closer to God and the soul of the World. I did not know at that time that many ancient religious traditions and scriptures had stories about fasting in the desert and its impact on the soul. How Christ has fasted for 40 days in the desert.

As Cameite monk Father William McNamara comments without the silence, utter simplicity and emptiness of the desert, one cannot differentiate the essentials from the non-essentials. The distinction between trivial and profound is rediscovered. Mediocrity becomes impossible in the desert where everything is reduced to life and death. Man than rises up and out of his sluggish culture and regains his authenticity and sensitivity. Without the desert experience according to Father McNamara a a man cannot achieve his destiny or fulfill his vocation. I was called again to the desert in January 2007 when I spent a significant amount of time in Santa Fe - reconnecting with the Native Americans and my art. Again it was a profoundly moving experience. This time I also went to visit spiritual communities and places of worship in the desert. The Christ Desert Monastery was a moving tribute to the power of faith in the desert. I was very moved by the Gregorian chants and the stark simple church that could only be reached via a 30min very bumpy ride along a dirt road. The whole place was charged - it was living proof of the intense power of God in nature and deepening one's faith within the deep silence of the desert.