| Let's dive...underground. A new world is opening in | | | | utilize this time, which is given to us? Do we use it to |
| front of us. It is sometimes oppressive to be | | | | create beauty and harmony around us? Can we look |
| underground, space is limited, there's no natural light, | | | | at these caverns of splendor as an inspiration to |
| and it's so easy to get confronted here BY our fears, | | | | create beauty and harmony in our life? |
| especially if you are claustrophobic. So will you let | | | | Another teaching comes with the story of the |
| your little voice and your brain govern you? Or will | | | | discovery of the caves: Jim White is the cowboy |
| you step forward to face the amazing beauty and | | | | credited with being the premier explorer of Carlsbad |
| natural work of Mother Nature? | | | | Caverns. He began to explore the cave as a |
| This is how Carlsbad Caverns is described: | | | | teenager in 1898, using a handmade wire ladder to |
| "... a limestone cavern known as the Carlsbad Cave, | | | | descend 60 feet into the cave. For more than a |
| of extraordinary proportions and of unusual beauty | | | | decade, he couldn't convince many locals that there |
| and variety of natural decoration;... beyond the | | | | was much to Carlsbad Caverns. Yes it takes effort, |
| spacious chambers that have been explored, other | | | | patience and perseverance to discover what's hidden. |
| vast chambers of unknown character and dimensions | | | | But sometimes, the most precious things are hidden, |
| exist;... the several chambers contain stalactites, | | | | or far, or difficult to access; are we going to give up |
| stalagmites, and other formations in such unusual | | | | because it takes effort or because of some fears? |
| number, size, beauty of form, and variety of figure | | | | Then aren't we passing by marvels that will bring |
| as to make this a cavern equal, if not superior, in | | | | beauty and harmony in our life? These caverns are |
| both scientific and popular interest to the better | | | | an inspiration for us to go deep within us to find the |
| known caves... " -Proclamation 1679-Oct. 25, 1923-43 | | | | pure jewels of our own wisdom, inspiration, instinct, |
| Stat. 1929 | | | | power, beauty, love, and let's share that with others. |
| There are more than 300 known caves beneath the | | | | Stalactites are formed by the deposition of calcium |
| surface. The park contains 116 of these caves, | | | | carbonate and other minerals, which is precipitated |
| formed when sulfuric acid dissolved the surrounding | | | | from mineralized water solutions. These stalactites |
| limestone, creating some of the largest caves in | | | | are like every little thing that Life has 'precipitated' in |
| North America. Beyond the beauty of these caves, | | | | our life, and that leaves marks and traces! |
| there are great teachings. First in its formation, | | | | A stalagmite is a type of cave formation that rises |
| obviously it takes hundreds and hundreds of years to | | | | from the floor of a limestone cave due to the |
| create these stalactites and stalagmites of limestone, | | | | dripping of mineralized solutions and the deposition of |
| from drop after drop. (Average growth rate of a | | | | calcium carbonate. The Stalagmite could be what we |
| stalactite is 0.13 mm (0.005 Inches) a year). So it | | | | build from what we receive. But we don't have to be |
| gives us an interesting approach of time. We as 21st | | | | passive in this process. If we keep in mind beauty, |
| century humans are running after time, so often. We | | | | harmony, patience, and perseverance, we can build |
| are afraid of not having enough time...but how do we | | | | such beauty within that it will shine out. |