Desert Flowers

This weekend I've been hanging out with my mom and aunt in Arizona. I love Seattle, but this June is rediculous. It's cold, rainy and just like October all over again. We didn't really have Spring, which sucked, but I cannot be denied a slice of summer. It's getting dire. This trip came up just in time. It's my aunt's first time seeing my mom's place and her first time in AZ. Even having been here before, I still feel the weight of the heat. It's hard on the body. I have to temper my urge to stand out in the sun soaking up the vitamin D with the knowledge that if I don't stay hydrated I'll get sun sick again...not a fun experience.

For the last two mornings, my aunt and I have gone out on walks. Neither of us are really early risers, but we've gotten up early enough to walk before it gets too hot. Anytime after 10:00am and going outside becomes like opening the oven door. But if you get out around 7:00am or 8:00am at the latest, it's just medium hot.

When my mom first moved here, I had just finished leading my second trip to Japan. I arrived the day before her furniture and spent a grueling August unpacking her house. It took me the month to get aclimatized in between the jet lag, moving, and the unbareable heat, but once I got used to the weather, I would wake up early and ride my bike or walk around the neighborhood. Arizona is kind of what I imagine mars to be like once the rich white people have colonized it, red brown and deserted save for shiny cars (that don't rust as quickly without the salt and snow of winter), the occasional patch of well watered grass, and adobe houses. The birds are mostly brown. There are rock colored lizards, gigantic cacti that make creepy shadows at night, and lots of pink rocks. It's beautiful in it's way, but so foreign from the midwestern landscape I grew up with or even the lush year round green of Seattle.

Where my mom lives, almost every house is surrounded by white walls or wooden and wrought iron fences of some kind. They look like compounds or Mexican villas. Lot of places have pools. Hardly any house has a basement or even a second floor, though it can be hard to tell because the houses are so hidden. It was fun to walk around with my aunt. I took her past some of my favorite houses, the one with a second floor sun porch and the one with the big half circle windows that reminds me of a Mexican restaurant. I also took her past a few of my favorite gardens. I love looking at the desert gardens. They are so textured.

Later this evening we went to the Desert Botanical gardens. I saw plants I'd never seen before, different kinds of cacti and aloe. I saw long earred jack rabbits, tiny hummingbirds, roadrunners, quail and wrens. There were these really cool Dr. Suess like trees sprouting from low growing, long leaved patches, as well as a variety of geraniums with different scents like rose and nutmeg. There was an herb garden with chile peppers, purple sage, several different types of lavender and other sweet smelling plants. It was really nice to spent that time with my family and also to commune with the desert. There is something that awes me about the desert. I'm not quite sure what it is, but I feel a deep sense of wonder at this unfamilar part of the world. Oddly enough I find myself thinking about Chile again and wishing I had made it north to Iquique and San Pedro de Atacama. I want to see the Desert bloom. Just the fact that in such a rocky, prickly place, that once a year flowers bloom fills me with hope...or maybe faith, that miracles do happen, that life finds away to flower even in the most unlikely places. That's my happy thought for today, that even with all the prickers, cacti blossom.