The morning sun was just rising fiery red on a clear blue day that promised heat latter on. In this bleak,stark landscape of West Texas stands a cross of proportions than that of none other. Although this phenomenon does not date back to the day of the old Route 66, which I was traveling that day, it surely is an attraction that definitely is the spirit of the Mother Road.
Steven Thomas was the structural engineer that designed and built this cross out of a desire to publicly profess his disdain for XXX pornography locations along I-40. His cross is surely a testament to God just in it specifications alone.. The cross stands 190 feet tall, it weighs two and a half million pounds, the base of the cross reaches 3 stories underground, and it took 70 truckloads of concrete to pour the foundation.
In the contemplative'eye' we can experience the world directly and joyfully. Once the openness of what 'this'or 'I' think about what I see, it is possible to engage with the 'thatness' of objects of perecption. It is then we begin 'deep noticing'. This flash of perception is the experience whether it be pleasant or unpleasant I find so compelling. It is the desire to resonate and connect to the object we perceive which brings us one with the universe. In that brief moment, we are transcended to become one with what is. The cross extends this invitation again and again as we seek and find this symbol entwined ever so gently throughout our lives. This invitation gives us love, humility, compassion, justice, failure, successes and so much more; that I daily have to take up my cross. As I saw this flash of perception along Route 66 that beautiful morning, the cross resonated an unconditional evenness that does not come from self or others. Thank you God and Steven Thomas.
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