TUCSON BORDERLANDS YOUNG ADULT VOLUNTEERS

  • Home
  • About
    • Current Volunteers
    • Community Partners
    • 2020 Annual Report
  • Urgent Letter from YAV
  • Get Involved
  • YAV Stories
  • 20th Anniversary
  • Community Workshops
  • Donate
  • Home
  • About
    • Current Volunteers
    • Community Partners
    • 2020 Annual Report
  • Urgent Letter from YAV
  • Get Involved
  • YAV Stories
  • 20th Anniversary
  • Community Workshops
  • Donate

Solitude in the Desert by Tanner K.

4/13/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
The eastern view from my solo campsite.
Solitude can be hard to find as a Young Adult Volunteer. I spend most of my time in community, whether it be my house community, work community, or church community. I have come to appreciate all of these communities, but from time to time, I do crave solitude. My craving was answered this past week in the form of a desert sojourn retreat. On Monday, my housemates and I travelled to the small community of Cascabel, Arizona. We camped together for a night, then each headed out to a solo camping site in the desert. There, I spent three days by myself. Well, myself and flies, roadrunners, birds, saguaros, and wildflowers.
​
I had been very excited for my time in the desert. It had been a busy month, and time by myself sounded like a great way to recharge my batteries. Part of me was also hoping that time to write and think would lend me powerful new insights about the world and myself. What I found on my first day was boredom and discomfort. I tried to write, but the words would not come. I tried to sit with my thoughts, but all I could think about were tasks I would have to complete the next week. And I was uncomfortable. The temperatures rose past the 90’s and the sun was beating down on my camp site. The inside of my tent felt like a sauna. So I moved from rock to rock, chasing the bit of shade provided by the small trees as the sun moved across the sky. As day one came to a close, I was not feeling any closer to myself or the world around me. 
Picture
My campsite for the week. You can see the teal tent where I slept poking out from behind a bush on the right.
PictureRock formation I made during the last day of the sojourn.

​The second day not only brought cooler temperatures, but also a greater sense of internal peace. I found myself lost in the book I had brought, which had not happened in a while. (FYI, the book was Borne by Jeff Vandermeer. I highly recommend it!) I also found it easier to write and think. While my mind would still drift back to deadlines and commitments, I also thought a lot about myself, the nature around me, and how I was feeling. By the morning of the third day, I felt truly happy and peaceful. I remember waking up and making some coffee. As I drank my coffee, I watched the sun rise over the cliffs. The world felt simple in that moment. Just me, my coffee, and creation. It hadn’t felt that simple in a long time.


While I do cherish the moments of serenity I had during the retreat, being alone was a complicated experience. I had some moments of utter boredom and some moments of total peace. There were times when I was thinking about how dirty I was or how uncomfortable the rock I was sitting on felt. But then other times I would completely forget how I physically felt and focus completely on the world around me.

Now that I am back in Tucson, I am grateful for the time alone, not in spite of being bored and uncomfortable at times, but partially because of those feelings. Those are two sensations that can be hard to tap into living in a modern world of connivence and technology. But they are a part of the human experience. Ultimately, I didn’t have any new, grand insights or revelations from my time in the desert, and it wasn’t three days of total peace and bliss. But it was three days to simply exist and be the person called Tanner, with all the emotional highs and lows that being a person on this Earth entails.

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Categories

    All
    2017 2018
    2017-2018
    Agua Prieta
    Biking
    Border
    BorderLinks
    CHRPA
    Colonization
    Community
    Community Food Bank
    CRREDA
    Deportation
    Desert
    Education
    Emily Oshinskie
    Expectations
    Faith
    Flash Blog
    Florence Project
    Frontera De Cristo
    Grace Dover
    Hospitality
    House Of Neighborly Service
    Immigration Detention
    Iskashitaa
    Jake Crowther
    Justice
    Keep Tucson Together
    LGBTQ
    Migrant Resource Center
    Migration
    Militarization
    Pandemic
    Posts In Spanish
    Primavera Foundation
    Privilege
    Race
    Refugee
    Sermon
    Sojourn
    Southside Presbyterian Church
    Spiritual Practice
    The Inn
    Tucson
    YAV 2014 2015
    YAV 2015 2016
    YAV 2015-2016
    YAV 2016 2017
    YAV 2016-2017
    YAV 2018 2019
    YAV 2018-2019
    YAV20192020
    YAV Life

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    December 2017
    September 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014

Tucson Borderlands YAV
Send mail: 400 E University, Tucson, AZ 85705
Call/text: (520) 355-4YAV Email: tucsonborderlandsyav@gmail.com
Connect with us on instagram and facebook: @tucsonyav
We are located on traditional Tohono O'odham and Yaqui homelands.

Donate
Creative Commons License