And here is post #7 for week #7. See, I’m staying on track! I’m going back to Arizona for a short vacation soon, and my mind was full of memories.
The suffocating heat is oppressive. The sun’s beat-down makes me wish I’d started my hike earlier in the day. I was almost there, but that last mile has been brutal.
I pause for a few minutes in the shade of a mesquite tree to catch my breath and drink from my water bottle. The water is quite warm now, but it’s wet and that’s what matters. My gaze seeks out the distant blue mountains, appearing closer than they are. I breathe deeply and allow my mind to rest, and I smile. The immediate scenery at my feet is brown and tan and varying shades of green with the occasional flowering shrub bravely brightening the landscape.
Tough. Patient. Resilient. These words describe the Arizona desert’s flora and fauna.
My back is covered in sweat and I can feel lines of moisture slowly tracking down my neck even as the wind lifts my hair to bring a teaser of coolness. Even with the extreme heat and sweating, my skin dries quickly because of the low humidity.
The never-ending bright blue sky remains, and only yields grudgingly to the evening by changing colors ever so slowly. The last half hour of light the sky explodes into neon orange as if the blue suddenly relinquished all hold to the day and bids us a farewell.
I pass by an acacia tree in bloom whose honey-sweet scent greets me, making me slow my steps and turn in my tracks for just a few moments to relish the beauty of sweetness hovering in the heated air. I gently finger a soft, fuzzy golden yellow ball of scent before I move on. The heat is intensifying and I’m getting tired.
I walk by a tortoise posing as a statue, his movements agonizingly slow and deliberate. Tiny lizards silently run quickly past flying across the ground and disappearing into the scrub on some errand of extreme importance and immediacy.
Cactus wrens remain perched up high peeking outside their nesting holes in the top of stately saguaros safe from predators. Their little ones strategically surrounded by razor sharp cactus spines chirp out their hunger and wait.
A road runner streaks past leaving a dust trail in his wake, agilely weaving around the scrub and cholla and small boulders strewn around the landscape like marbles that have fallen out of a bag and disappears down the path in a tumble of pebbles.
Life in the desert is precarious and unforgiving. It’s also patient and resolute. Single-mindedness of survival with the summer day beginning hot and increasing in its merciless heat until the earth incrementally turns and the sun sets. The night becomes almost cool and the air a caress as if apologizing for the inhospitable day.
The blackness of the night shrouds the mountains in a cloak of secrecy, where they appear in the morning light again like a wayward lover with a kiss of welcome.
The heartbeat of the mountains and the desert beat in sync with mine as we discover life together.
