One of my favorite things to do, as the sun sets here in Arizona, is to sit out back and watch the sun go down, and the stars come out. With drink in hand and the desert floor as my palate, I paint a picture in my mind of what the wildlife is doing that I can hear, but cannot see.
The temperatures are still in the hundreds. The air is sometimes very still but as the clouds roll in … and they do that often this time of year… a little breeze ruffles my hair now and again. I sip my drink and settle into the soft cushion of my chair to relax. I allow my body to become quiet in the heat.
Some times I think and other times I just sit and watch the scene of beauty unfold. I see all kinds of wild life on the other side of the fence while I am still, there in my yard. Bob cats. havalina, many kinds of birds, once a puma, tarantula, scorpions, coyotes… sometimes in packs and sometimes a lone coyote. They notice me. We stare at each other and I wonder what they see in me. I see in them the beauty of creation.
As the sun drops into the dust, the clouds lift in colors of pink and gold and white, I continue to be stilled to see it. Thunder clouds will form and I am in awe at the beauty that God can create moment to moment. To speak would be sinful. To break this symphony of God would be wrong. In fact, while I do this nearly every night, I never tire of the majesty in which I am only an observer.
A trail of perspiration makes its way down my arm. I rub an ice cube on my arm and recall a cooler time… a time when as a child I walked with my brother in the moonlight with snow falling from the sky. No stars. But flakes clinging to naked trees forming white lace against a midnight colored sky.
Two people
Walking in the snow…
Melting, the footprints are gone.
Thomas Wayne Wright
I treasure the memory and wonder at the age of the earth, and the number of siblings who have been separated by death yet live with each other still in the gift of a walk in the new fallen snow.
Thunder rumbles in the distance. The clouds are moving quickly. The sun has gone. Left to bring a new day to those who sleep. Lightning blinks in the sky… first in short rhythms of light and then in great dynamic streaks. My thoughts are drawn away from the past and I smile to consider what can be smelled in the air. Rain.
Again I sip my drink, still feeling the heat. A wind is coming. The clouds heave in the air as if trying to give birth. And then it’s here. Just a drop. Then two, then quickly a cacophony of wet drops accompanied by intermittent sound and light.
It pours from the sky. No stars tonight. But everything is new again. I feel young! Renewed!
May you also be renewed as we enter into another busy week.
Best… Carolyn Thomas Temple