Love All

Driving to Flagstaff from the Grand Canyon is a gorgeous trip. The terrain varies from desert speckled in pinion trees to mountains thick with Ponderosa Pines. I stopped at Target in Flagstaff to buy a new phone to get directions to Natalie’s house, my next stop.  After hiking out of the canyon that morning and then traveling in a car for two hours, I limped to the electronics section at the back of the store. My calves felt as if someone tied them in a knot. There was a young man standing in front of the phones weighing his options. I joined him, cautiously posing the question, ‘So what happened to your phone?’

‘Lost it on the ski hill.’ he replied. ‘You?’

‘The Grand Canyon ate it.’

He nodded, knowingly, as if this was everyday news to him. God, I love Flagstaff. I purchased a Red Bull and a new POS phone, immediately sticking my SIM card in it to call Natalie. 

When I got to Phoenix I took the longest, hottest shower in the history of showers. I stood under the scalding hot water and washed the last of the canyon dirt off of my scorching skin. When I was clean and refreshed, I joined the family in the living room. Natalie’s home feels very familiar to me even though I’ve never before been there. Nat and I lived together for two years in college. She was the best roommate ever because we took care of each other. She is one of the few people in this world that I feel comfortable complaining to. She is very caring and hospitable, but has also mastered the art of tough love. One time in college I fell into a documentary coma. I was heartbroken over some Colorado boy who wasn’t worth my time, and I hadn’t moved from the couch to shower, do homework, or exercise in days. I just sat in our living room and watched Hulu documentaries on 9/11 conspiracies, ghosts in old mental hospitals, and how food will be the downfall of our country. When Natalie had enough of my moping, she mothered me off of the couch.

‘Darrah, get up! Shower. We’re going shopping. Retail therapy.’

Natalie always knows what to say. Her famous line to me came when I was lying on the floor in her bedroom one night, obsessing over whether or not to go on a date with a guy who had asked me out. After hearing enough back and forth she finally said,

‘Darrah, just go- a girl’s gotta eat’. Well put. I love her for her nonchalant attitude.

Natalie’s family instantly took me in as one of their own. Her mom is one of those people you can’t get anything by. She has x-ray vision for souls. Natalie’s dad is a quiet but proud man with a deep love for his family. Though, when he does say something, it’s usually hilarious. He likes to pretend he doesn’t hear when the women are talking about him in the next room. Family is very important to them. They all mostly live in the same town, just up the road from each other. They’re like the Navajo Kardashians. They meddle because they care about and love each other deeply. In the mornings we drank tea and talked about Navajo traditions. In the evenings we would sit by the fire and watch the desert sun go down as coyotes howled in the distance.

One day we went hiking among the saguaros. These cacti enticed me. Some of them are hundreds of years old, whiskered grandfathers of the desert. They are huge and beautiful. Each one is a little different, adding its own flair and personality to the sandy wilderness. To me, they looked like different yoga poses. I mimicked them with my arms as we hiked around and talked. Natalie is wonderful to talk to because she understands that I function on a wavelength not typical of people my age. She always tells me to calm down and be 22 for a change. It’s fantastic advice that I generally ignore.

After watching the Secret Life of Walter Mitty (phenomenal movie) Natalie and I were discussing what to do next. We decided to visit her longtime friend, Javie. Javie is a tattoo artist who looks the part. He is a tall American Indian man with a long braided ponytail and tattoos on almost every inch of visible skin. He has a split tongue like a snake, and is missing part of his left ear. When we walked into the parlor he was finishing ink on a girl‘s stomach that read ‘This too shall pass’. We made small talk while he finished her art. It looked painful. We listened as he told us about his love for golfing and his sons. Regardless of his hard exterior, Javie is a big softie. Now, the following chain of events is hazy to me, but the next thing I knew, I was sitting on the table with Javie coming at my ankle holding a buzzing tattoo gun loaded with red ink. Then, pain. If my mom asks, Natalie and Javie talked me into it. But I’d actually been thinking about inking for a while. I now have a red thread of fate running around my ankle. An old Chinese tale says that the gods tie a red thread around each person’s ankle before birth. The thread is connected to every important person we will ever meet in our lives. The thread may tangle and stretch, but it will never break. It only made sense to get this tattoo on my tour because this legend is what Tour de Polkahontas is all about. I have had the pleasure of spending time with some of the most hospitable, kind, generous, and loving human beings on planet earth. I love them all dearly and people I’ve met have had incredible purpose in my life, and vice versa (hopefully). On the inside of my ankle, the thread is tied in a bow. On the outside it loops into the words ‘love all’, words to live by, and a nudge to the joy and purpose tennis has served in my life thus far. I find it ironic; in the game of tennis, love means you have nothing. But in the game of life it means you have everything. The tattoo is simple and meaningful; it also hurt like a motherfucker. Don’t get a tattoo on your Achilles tendon. Just don’t do it.

The next morning I packed my belongings as Natalie’s mom packed my cooler and prepped my Kinaalda cake and packaged it for the road(did you know you can wash a cake?). 

I had lunch with Kendra and Bre before I left town. Kendra and I graduated from high school together five years ago. We gossiped about people from our past and talked about relationships over lunch and wine. It was girl talk at its finest.  Catching up with Kendra was wonderful because she is doing wonderful things with her life and I’m excited to see where she’ll go next. We have a lot in common these days, and it was fun to share stories.

After lunch I struggled to navigate out of Phoenix and pointed my car south. Phoenix was good to me, and it was time to move on to the next adventure.