My father was a huge fan of Sedona, Arizona. He visited there at least a dozen times, and had Sedona artwork of many types in his home. He passed away in 2012 at the age of 69, on his birthday in fact (read earlier journal about that if you care to do so).

He was cremated per his request, but the suddenness of his death left me without instructions, and the duty of being as true to his ideals as I could be. I thought "what better place than Sedona for his ashes". I had never seen the place in person but knew of it's immense beauty. My brother, his son (my nephew), my brother's wife, Hyper, and our great Dane all visited Sedona the weekend of the 13th of April, 2014 - to honor my father and lay his ashes to rest.

My brother is a runner, and decided to first ask, then scout a location. We decided together that the park at the west edge of Sedona, maintained by the US park service, would be ideal. After a slow hike of about an hour, we ended up at this nice bend in the waterway that feeds irrigation to local farmers.

Going this far into the park meant we had plenty of time to ourselves, not a single soul passed by for the hour we remained at this spot. My nephew made a couple of rock stacks (see those in the upper right), a favorite pass-time of many other visitors in the area.

I shot this one second exposure of the water to give it that mystical look so often found on puzzle boxes. I could definitely have used my neutral density filter, but it did not come along on this trip. Ideally, the exposure would have been even longer.

All 5 of us (dog did not participate) spread a portion of ash. I took the final remains and rinsed the container, so all was laid there.

Nearly 18 months had passed from cremation to the spreading ceremony. We were all happy to be together, to do this service. My hope is that when my time comes, someone who cares about me will take even half as much time to think about where I'd like to rest. That, or I'd be ok being digested by alligators. I'm not too particular...