There are many things in life that impact us. Places that we visit, people that we meet, they can be metaphors for other thoughts and feelings. In 2009, Walking about an abandoned antlerite mine in Mohave County, AZ, in the desert below the Hualapai’s, great sadness but hope overtook me.  I wrote down my thoughts. This is what came out 2 years later... 

The Last Breath of a Mine….     She is still BREATHING! I felt her breath! I see it in her eyes… To use someone, then discarded them like rubble. To tell her that she is your love, then you’re gone- Leaving her without breath. Abandoned. Disillusioned. Why didn’t she see it coming? Does anyone care? To use the land, to take from it. To haul large machines across it and mar the view. Leave scars…. She cries herself to sleep most nights. How could someone she trusted, do this?  They bored deep holes and erected large wooden structures... to remove her insides. He told her not to tell… Know one else would understand… They hauled out tons and built a warehouse of cores. Copper stones lay about on the ground Oxidized. The smell of sulfur burns your nostrils. Her inner parts spewed as they mined. Dug though. Only needing small pieces. Waste, so much waste. He was suppose to protect her… Like track lines of a heroin addict they cut roads all over her body. Looking, hunting, boring. Destroying her soul… Whoa to the abandoned mine, to those that take, and abuse! They made her feel special, then they took only what they wanted. Left alone, exposed, her soul torn apart. Traumatized! I walked around. I picked up beautiful core samples that came from deep inside her. She looked away, embarrassed, yet, in need. She seemed dead. Used to death, my guess. I lingered. I Waited. Yet, as I waited, I felt a breeze, not from up above, but a movement of air... it was cold outside, yet, this breeze was warm. It was coming from deep down! A vent of life, deep inside the earth! It smelled of sulfur. It smelled like the rocks that were thrown about, not wanted. It smelled like a tormented life… The look in her eyes, begged to talk, to share…. Yes, she was still alive, still breathing! There was still a chance! She could grow strong again! Her discarded parts could be used! They were beautiful, they had value. She could be made whole again! Why did the miners not see this? Why so much waste? Why not make every piece useful? Reclaim her. Love her. Show the world that she is beautiful. Able to be whole. Polish her cores... gather the stones... She is still alive! Build a thing of beauty with them! Show her honor, that she is still valuable. Show the world the beauty of the inside!