Panther Falls

Here are some images of Panther Falls which is were I spent several hours this weekend.  Look familiar?  If so, I’m impressed.  This is the site of the advertising image for Halestones’s Concert, “Older than the Mountains.”

Older than the Mountains

Absolutely beautiful.  The rocks are placed to frame the water so perfectly that just sitting there was enough experience for me.  But then this little voice came into my head–words I had written in a previous post.  Let me find them…

Beauty surrounds us,

But usually we need to be walking

In a garden to know it. (rumi)

After I arrived at the Dancers House (the most beautiful, calming, creative space I could imagine) I walk to Halestone to watch some of the dancers rehearse.  Walking to the studio, I was reminded of that Rumi stanza above.  The act of walking—it’s like participating in the beauty.  There’s a deepening of beauty when we can experience it as opposed to seeing or hearing about it at a distance.  Walking in Lexington is like that…recognizing and feeling the beauty of the area and the people and the town.  And then comes an active pulse or current of energy.

Yeah…so…somehow I needed to experience this beauty.  Watching isn’t enough for me, eh?  Let me tell you, the water was cold.  I’ll be the first to admit my aversion to water colder than 75 degrees, and this was chilly.  My artsy-experience-it-all-even-if-it-gets-in-the-way-of-comfort-we’ve-artificially-grow-accustomed-to mantra was falling farther and farther away from my priorities.  Looking and enjoying and breathing in this experience was more than enough!  More than Houston could offer!  It was settled, that was enough for me.

Time ticked and I couldn’t stop thinking about that stupid soap box about “walking” in nature I spoke from last week.  Wimp?  Hypocrite?  Sissy?  Well there was no way in world that I would be jumping off the cliff/rock into the water.  Unfortunately, I’m far too careful a person to even consider that.  Actually that’s probably the very reason I wouldn’t do it.  I would consider doing it.  I saw several brave souls jumping off those rocks and realized that in order to do that, you just have to go for it.  Not think about it.  I’m not so good about that.

So I worked my way in, feet, ankles, knees, fish nibbling at me and all.  Those jumping from the rocks created enough splash that I eventually got wet and figured I should just get in.  So I did.  I swam around, walked around and shortly realized I had had enough.  It wasn’t bad, but that was all I really needed to do to “walk” in the beauty.  What happened next was quite unfortunate.  As I came to shallow water to climb out of the swimming hole, my feet slipped around on the rocks from the algae.  The current was quite strong and it pushed me over the rocks down a small water fall until my legs landed straight down onto a rock.  I was in a vertical standing position, stuck between the top edge of the waterfall and the bottom rocks.  I was literally stuck due to the slippery rocks and the strong current.  One of the jumpers saw me half-laughing and half-panicked as I squirmed to try to get out.  But I was one-handed because my bathing suit top had come unlatched.  He came over and with one hand holding my top on and the other held by the jumper he pulled me (with all his might, may I add) to the dryer rocks.  Thank you, sir.

So after that incident you may guess that I had had enough.  No.  I will not be defeated by the Panther Falls.  After a short break, and after the coaxing of some others, I jumped into the deeper end and swam to the larger falls you see in the pictures above.  I was not going to end on that humiliating note.  And I didn’t.  It was successful, and I came away with a funny story.  All in all, a beautiful day.

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