every day gifts

My new job requires that I am out & about, on my feet around 7 hours a day or more. I have come to realize that there are parts of my neighborhood that I never even knew existed which is rather absurd.

I am finally realizing why I came to Arizona over 7 years ago. It's because the desert has a unique, mystical beauty to it. It reminds me of solitude...steady and quiet, full of mystery.

I'm careful not to miss a beat in my surroundings. I literally stopped to smell the roses a few times last week. I felt the sunshine on my face, the wind in my hair, and heard the bees with their hypnotic hum. For once I looked into the cactus flower and said, "Ahhhh....home."

True home to me is nature. I need to be outside and to be with the earth just as much as I need food and water.

I love what naturalist writer Terry Tempest Williams says in a story called Undressing the Bear. "As women connected to the earth, we are nurturing and we are fierce. We are wicked and sublime. The full range is ours. We hold the moon in our bellies and fire in our hearts."

Let the fire burn and illuminate our passion for living.