THE YEAR OF THE HORSE

The Chinese New Year has begun and the Buddhist Temple on Fanita Drive in Santee is still celebrating.  The Goddess of Mercy,  Kuan Yin, is the central figure in the front courtyard. I stopped there on my afternoon bicycle ride and remembered the great experience of living four years in Singapore.

I rode back through Mission Gorge... wondering how long it will be after the coming weekend of rain before these hills are green and the San Diego River is finally full again.  

The Kumeyaay People who lived in this gorge for hundreds of years before Europeans came to the continent had wonderful stories about these magnificent rock formations. I can imagine they made this pile of close fitting rocks into a mythical being as powerful and as important as Kuan Yin was to the early Buddhists in India and China.  Kuan Yin's name signifies her compassion, literally meaning "One who hears the cries of the world."  I wonder what these rocks signified to the Kumeyaay People.