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Last week I wrote an article for Elephant Journal about the question of how spirituality and technology overlap and enhance each other. I’ve been thinking a lot about ways that these two things are NOT mutually exclusive.
Today, I went up on Mt Tamalpais to check out the fluke snowfall we had gotten over the weekend. I had an epic time hiking around in the snow by myself.
I love my mountain. If my mountain was a folk singer with a ponytail playing love ballads on an acoustic guitar, I’d be the most devoted fan in all the coffee shops in Portland. If my mountain was a spider monkey, I’d smuggle it back from The Orient and walk it around on a leash. If my mountain was a girl, I’d be a lesbian.
And today my mountain looked so damned cute with snow on it! I had the best day, by myself, trudging around in the slush, dodging melting snow falling from trees, breaking frozen mud puddles with my pottery boots, asking random strangers for a glance at their maps, taking pictures. I had a whole afternoon of solitude and didn’t for one second feel alone.
I’m sure no one will argue that getting out on a mountain by yourself just after a snowstorm is one of the most spiritual everyday experiences a person can have. To me, spirituality and creativity often go hand-in-hand.
Whenever I hike by myself I always have a lot of creative ideas, and before I had an iPhone, my brain would fill up with them to the point that I couldn’t relax and hike anymore because I’d be too anxious about getting to a piece of paper to write them down. Now, I can whip out my iPhone, turn on Voice Memo, download the idea bubble, get it out of my brain, and create space for something else.
Oh also, here’s a link to a Patty Griffin song called “Up On the Mountain.” This song was inspired by a Martin Luther King speech (as you’ll hear on the recording) and it’s just lovely. Once I was up at the top of the Marin Headlands — having just huffed all the way to the height of the cliff over Tennessee Valley and along a snaking, precarious trail — when my iPod shuffle burst into a round of this song. It was pretty much a spiritual moment for me. Thanks to my iPod.
