desert zen

at Arizona State University campus, i came across a small garden with golden barrel cacti and several cairns. there is such peace and balance in the stones, their order, their smoothness, the horizontal lines, the way they lift the eyes to the capstone. the cairns (maybe 20) in this little garden, poised like downtown loiterers among cactus fixtures, offer no obvious clue as to what point of reference or navigation purpose they serve. however, i was so intrigued by their placement that i stopped to take a photo. and wanting to write something interesting i googled a few word combinations to see how common a cairn configuration like this one was written about or photographed. and in doing that, i came across a blog with photos of similar looking cairns. the blog had a very nice song playlist, including "the littlest birds" by the be good tanyas. a new song to enjoy - that's where this cairn led me.