“I’ve been through the desert on a horse with no name…”
Well, actually with my beloved husband Tom by my side. I had the joy of attending a niece’s wedding this Memorial Day weekend in Scottsdale, Arizona. Upon arrival, the heat and the arid, sparse desert landscape evoked a certain “survival” response in my body. Not to mention that being in a parked car for more than 10 minutes could rapidly become a life-threatening situation. Leaving the malls and hotels behind, we opted for a more direct experience and headed into the desert hills of the McDowell Sonoran Preserve.
I was literally stunned into stillness by the statuesque welcome of the saguaro cactus, native to Arizona (pictured above). All our ideas of having a “power hike” melted into a meandering exploration, alighting on one miraculous plant after the next. Each one a new friend -pinkflower hedgehog cactus, lavendar prickly pears, candy barrel cactus – all engaging us in conversations of wonder and beauty.
There was something both vulnerable and resilient about them.
It reminded me of watching our niece get married, their young love, passionately flowering with all the daring of a desert bloom. I felt the lifetime ahead of them; how they will find the water of forgiveness from unexpected sources deep within them; how they will work with the burning heat of their relationship, learning how to harness the solar power of love and not get burned and hopefully how they will learn to walk the path from survival response to wonder and awe.
Most of all I wished for them a lifetime of open-hearted unabashed blooming that penetrates even through the most spiny layers – an indelible lesson taught to me by my desert friends.
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