DESERT LOVE

I walk on my Mother’s body

 warmed by my Father’s fire

My graceful sister offers a covering for my head

My mighty brother stands nearby ready to protect me.

My silly cousins play jokes on me.

My lover, deep in the mountain calls to me

and scatters pretty stones at my feet.

I am coming.

In gratitude.

THIS LAND

I love living on this desert. You know I do. But, there’s a couple of other ‘places’ that sing siren songs to me.


One is the mountains. And I don’t mean our desert mountains…special, though they are. I mean the big, way up high Rocky Mountains of Colorado.

I lived for several childhood years in Colorado Springs, Colorado. I was, even at a tender age, living in a constant ‘Rocky Mountain high.” Even then, I was consciously grateful that I lived in such a place. It was truly magical to me.

My grandparents' home in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Many a Sunday drive took us winding through massive canyons along tumbling creeks and rivers. I am sitting here shaking my head at the memory of drinking that pure, sweet water straight from those streams…without fear of getting sick.

Check out my Shirley Temple pose!

My Dad always thought a picture was better if he was pointing at 'something'...even if it was nothing!

Magnificent waterfalls appeared around many bends in the road.

My most special aunt and me.

 And the road was often barely more than a dirt track…and if you should happen to meet an approaching car, one of you would have to back up…most carefully…till room was found to pull to the side while the other car passed. Scant inches to spare, I tell you! Scary! Exciting!

This next picture was taken in mid-June-in the mid-50's.

The other place which pulls me…as I think it does most people…is the ocean. I will never forget my first glimpse of the Pacific. We had driven from Colorado Springs to Los Angeles for vacation one year. The extent of my traveling, to that point, was from Colorado to Southeastern New Mexico and West Texas. Although I eventually learned to have an appreciation for a certain kind of beauty in those New Mexico and West Texas landscapes, I distinctly remember wondering, as a child, how on earth anyone could live in such a barren, UGLY place!

When I saw the ocean, I was stunned. It was simply unimaginable! I still feel that way whenever I am fortunate enough to find myself on a beach.

One trip, when I was traveling with my husband cross-country in his 18 wheeler, is unforgettable. Within a two week period, I was on beaches in Southern California, Oregon, Massachusetts (Cape Cod), South Carolina, Florida and Texas (Galveston).

We spent one night, right on the beach camp ground at Point Dana, in Southern California.

 There was a very high surf at the time. I will never forget, standing barefoot on the sand..yards away from the waters’ edge…and in the dark of night. Whenever one of those gigantic waves would hit the beach, the vibration went from the bottom of my feet through my entire body. I get shivers just thinking about that.

This is not a good picture, but it sure is a good memory. You can't see it...it's such a tiny dark spot, but there is a whale in that water off the Oregon coast! It's that miniscule dark spot just to the left of the center trees.

Unbeleivably, when we were on Cape Cod it was one of the warmest January days on record.  We really lucked out!

“From the mountains, to the prairies, to the oceans white with foam………..”
This country of ours is awesomely beautiful. I’ve been fortunate enough to travel to …or at least through…all but 5 of the contiguous states.

If I were given the opportunity to travel anywhere on this planet, I guarantee you it would be America. The sheer variety of geology is amazing. The natural history is incredible. The human history is both heart-breaking and heart-healing. I could easily spend the rest of my life traveling within its’ borders. And be this happy doing so.

I love this country.

I am GRATEFUL for this land.

A SEASON FOR MEMORIES

One of the very best parts of being of a ‘certain’ age is that you have a pretty packed full memory basket.


This beautiful morning, my husband and I have been taking advantage of a glorious sunny day and have been doing some yard work.

Leaf raking was on the agenda.

I am pretty much betting that the moment you read those words, you had a strong memory of autumn when you were a kid, didn’t you?

Does this look like work…

or like fun….?

When you only have one deciduous tree in your entire yard, leaf raking isn’t much of a chore, so for me, it’s just fun. And for the short time it takes to do the job, I imagine me…about age 8…living in Colorado Springs where there were LOTS of autumn leaves to rake into piles….

That was Daddy’s job.

My job was to jump in them!

Again and again…

Of course, there were so many piles, that most of them got burned…right there in our yard. If you’re old enough, you remember back when it was still legal to do such a thing. And I absolutely know, that you remember the sight of smoke, curling up through those crinkly leaves and most of all, the smell! Autumn Heaven!!!

I realize this is all a little out of ‘synch’ with many of my readers. You’re probably dealing with snow and ice…and last autumn is a fading memory.

But in Tucson, things are different.

I’m sure, right now, up on the mountain, there is snow.

Down here in town,however it’s shirtsleeves weather…although that won’t last. It will get cold again sooner or later. But meanwhile, on this January day of autumn memories, I also have this in my yard….

It’s my Skyflower bush…just as green as though it were springtime!

And one more thing………..

Those little spears, thrusting their selves into the winter sunshine, are red gladiolus. I didn’t plant them here…someone long before I bought this house did…. and they don't come up and/or bloom every year. But when I see them looking like they're trying…I give them a little help by way of some extra water.

We’ll keep an eye on things and see if we get lucky this year.

One more memory just got jogged by that piece of driftwood. I brought that home from a river in Oregon. Just seeing it brings back that very special day and that very special place.

I am so very grateful for so many wonderful memories in my ‘memory basket.’

My wish, for you, is that you are busy filling your 'memory basket.'

SAVE YOUR PHOTOS!

I have, litereally, thousands of photographs on my computer.  Sometimes, when I'm thinking about ideas for a particular blog idea, I remember one of those photos and am happy to know it's there for me to use.

I have many pictures of places we've visited, and of course, friends and family.

I have pictures of my projects.

I have  pictures of my paintings.  But I don't have pictures of all my paintings, because of these reasons.

1.  I forgot to take a picture of it before it was sold. Dumb.
2.  I accidentally deleted my picture after the picture was sold. Dumber.
3.  My computer crashed and I lost everything on it. Dammit!

Uh-Oh...I just broke my bad language rule.  But, if you can't say a bad word when your computer crashes, just when CAN you say one?

There's not much I can do about the first two.

Now, I know there's lots of gidgets and gadgets available for saving important files from your computer and preventing such losses.  But I don't have them.  What I do have and should be much more diligent in using, is the on-line photo storage available through many places such as Kodak, Costco, Picasa, Snapfish, etc.

Even if your computer does crash, you could use any computer to access your photos and get them back. 

When our family lost almost everything in a fire, the thing that hurt the most was the loss of years' worth of precious photos.

Now I'm not going to get all crazy and start making New Year's resolutions...UGH!....but, I do think I'm going to make an effort to get all my pictures saved to one of those good on-line sources.

'Cause, manohman, I'd hate to lose this picture!

That's my mom and my brother after we'd climbed up a jumble of boulders along a creek in Southeastern Arizona.  What a fun day that was!  My mom was no spring chicken at the time but she wasn't gonna let anything stop her from getting to the top!

Then, there's this one of grandson, Michael, when he got his first glimpse of The Grand Canyon.

It's obvious that he didn't believe what his eyes were seeing.  The Grand Canyon will do that to you.

And what a shame it would be if this precious picture of my maternal grandparents was allowed to disintegrate!

Or this one, of me cleaning the summer kitchen on one of my visits to my Navajo 'family.'

Lordy!  I look big as a barn!

And last, but not least...what would I do if I couldn't look at this face anytime I want to!

I am so GRATEFUL for these photographic memories.

I think I'll work a little harder to get them all in a safe place.

NEVER ON A NEW YEAR SUNDAY

2010? Is it?


My head spins at the thought.

So…I just won’t think

much less

write or blog.

ON NEW YEAR'S EVE

Today was such a beautiful day here in Tucson, that I just HAD to get out of the house and into Mama Nature’s lap!

I needed to sit on a rock.

I wanted to go hiking to find the perfect rock to sit on and I didn’t want to go alone. There are many good reasons for not going hiking alone…especially for a 65 year old woman with wonky knees.

But, it being New Year’s Eve, most people already had plans and hubby is just not all that into hiking. He has a wonky hip. And it’s already bothering him, so I really didn’t feel like pushing him into going with me.

I was beginning to feel a little of that ugly old resentment rising in me. NOT a good thing. So, I chose to feel peace, joy and love…and gratitude…and I just hopped in the car and took off!

Besides, I really needed some pictures of roads and with all the photos I already have, I just didn’t have exactly what I wanted for my New Year’s Day blog entry, LOOKING FORWARD.

I had a fine time. I went to Sonora National Park-East (We also have a ‘West’ one) where I knew there would be plenty of people around to help if I, for any reason, needed some.

I took a bunch of pictures. It is always amazing to me how much color there is on this ‘brown’ desert…and on December 31st, to boot-the very dead of winter.

The mighty saguaros astound me…and they make me laugh. They are, I’m convinced, God’s cartoon characters.

And I found me a rock.

 It wasn’t much of a rock, as rocks go, out here. But, it was the right rock and I knew it. I sat down. I listened to the blessed quiet of this big ol’ desert. I played with the little mica flecked rocks at my feet. I turned them this way and that way and watched the sun strike light into them It was as if I had a handful of diamonds.

I sat there and let the sun give me kisses and the breeze give me caresses and just let my soul get filled with my Mother’s milk.

As you know, I don’t do New Year’s resolutions.

But if I did, I might resolve to take myself, more often, to places where my blessed Mother can nurture me, as She desires to do.

I am so GRATEFUL for this beautiful world I live in. And I am especially GRATEFUL for this day I spent really BEING in it.

LOOKING FORWARD

I’m going to get out my crystal ball and look into the year 2010 to see what I can see.


Actually, I won’t.

I don’t have a crystal ball.

But I don’t really need one to see what I already know is in my future.

PEACE, JOY AND LOVE.

That’s what.

How do I KNOW this?

Because that’s the road I choose most of the time.

That…and gratitude.

Oh, sometimes I forget for a minute…or an hour…or even a day. But, I’ve learned to come back ‘home’ pretty quick.

I’m not very comfortable anymore with DRAMA, ANGUISH OR FEAR.

I’ve had more than my fill of those, thank you, very much! Most of it was, of course, of my own choosing.

I don’t really make New Year’s resolutions anymore. But, if I did, I would resolve to continue finding even more reasons for gratitude. I’m never disappointed. NEVER. If I look, for even an instant, I can ALWAYS find something to be Grateful for. And in a heart and mind where there is gratitude, nothing negative can take up residence. It might come for a brief visit, but it just doesn’t stay very long.

Gratitude is the house of bricks that the big, bad wolf simply cannot tear down…no matter how much he huffs and puffs.

So, huff away and puff away, you big ol’ bad wolf. You are no match for my house full of PEACE, JOY AND LOVE…..and

GRATITUDE!

AMEN!

And....HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!