As I sit atop one of the many  silent cliffs, I gaze across the endless desert and mesas that stretch all around me for an eternity. The silent sentinels sit quietly under a velvet black sky filled billions of shimmering stars. I find myself thinking back through time and remembering those all but forgotten People who made their home here once, a long time ago.

They were a proud and special People, a People whose beginnings even the oldest legends and storytellers cannot tell of any more. They did live here once, and that fact can never be doubted. These People of already ancient and timeless knowledge started numerous and unique traditions, as well as beautiful customs that live on still today. But now their remains lie silent, buried under the sand, deep in the towering wind-worn cliff walls where they once resided. These loving People shared much of their vast knowledge, but now only the eternal mesas know their true and quiet secrets.

Memories continue to whisper words and images into my mind. They tell me of how these People came from beyond the farthest star to this distant planet in order to live and share their great understanding with others similar to them. Then the time came for them to return to their distant home because everything was changing around them. The younger generations of the People were changing as well, with sorrowfully fewer and fewer caring to try to remember the stories of their history, or of any of the important lessons that the Old Ones wanted the children to learn. Sadly, the time finally came for this strange and mysterious race of People to return to the stars that had borne them. Most of the young People decided to stay. These young People watched and said farewell as the others sadly returned to their homes far away, wondering if they had forgotten to listen to some message or teaching of the Elders. After they could no longer see the starcraft that had faded into the dark starry sky, the numerous young people went far away to become new members of the distant neighboring tribes, leaving behind them the bones and memories of their dead ancestors to be forgotten in the dust and sand. With the passing of time and the coming of new generations, these young people forgot all about those who had left for a distant home.

Those sad and weary Elders and People who left so very long ago have not forgotten those young people who chose of their own free will to remain among the inhabitants of a small and distant planet. Nor have they forgotten those of their own People who passed away to join with the Creator during their brief stay in the desert land of the southwest. When more of the nations of the People of the planet Earth are ready to remember the compelling and wise words that the Elders once spoke to all who would listen, then the Ancient Ones will begin their long return journey back to Earth. They will come to teach, share, and live with those of us who still remain here, and become One People again.

Until that time arises, until I can see their ships as they land among the sleeping mesas, and until I can sit at the fire and hear the words that they have waited so long to share, I will remain among the silent desert towers of wisdom. I will walk among the wind-worn caves and homes of long ago, listening to the cries and laments of those who lie forgotten, buried in caves and cliffs of the eternally watchful mesas, and I’ll remember, I’ll watch and wait with them...
 
 

First Opened: November 13, 2000
Revised: June 2004