I’m in a pensive mood today. After a month of vacationing in the beautiful mountains of Arizona, I am back to the reality of Phoenix in the summer. It’s September and there’s a month more of really hot weather to look forward to. Normally, I don’t mind the heat and figure that it is but a small price to pay for the glorious weather we enjoy from October to June – day after day of wonderful balmy temperatures filed with clear blue skies and gentle breezes. We have Thanksgiving dinners at the park and Christmas dinners on the patio. Roses upset the natural order of things and bloom in December. It is an absolute paradise for eight to nine months. All that wonderful weather does not come free. We have to pay for it with June, July and August. In reality it is not much different than being in the northeast and seeing the advance of winter and knowing that you are in for six or seven months of cold weather.
This year we decided to fool Mother Nature. We ran away to the high country for the month of August. Yes, it was gorgeous and cool and everything a vacation should be. But, Mother Nature had her revenge with rain every day. After the first week of heavy rain and awesome lightning, I didn’t even care if it was rainy. It was so green and welcoming that the tall pines literally embraced my soul and restored my spirit. I would be the first to admit that the first few days were a little rough as there really was not great internet connectivity and cell phones were not always going to pick up a signal. Withdrawal was difficult and I was forced to rediscover the thrill of doing nothing. I have a lifetime of doing anything and everything – this or that or whatever meaningless task that I might have on my “to do list.” Everything assumed an all important level as being critical –something that must be done right away. I had lost all ability to question “why?” So much of my time was filled with busywork activity, with very little spent on just getting to know me. Well a month of rain without internet distractions and I developed a relationship with who I am and what I want from the remaining time that I walk this earth. For probably the first time in my life I can honestly look at who I am and not what I’ve done. It was a rather exciting adventure.
I don’t know how much the quiet and serenity played in the rediscovery process. It certainly was key in establishing a calmness that I haven’t experienced in years, but more than that, it was reinvigorating and totally regenerating. Just hearing the sound of silence, broken only by the sound of rain was an invitation to be alive.
So here I am back in Phoenix. It’s 110° in the shade and not a drop of rain in the sky, but now the strangest thing has happened. I don’t care. I’m ready to take on the world again. With pen in hand (actually, keyboard before me) I am ready to write. I challenge all the characters that have played in my head, “Come on out.” Play in my fingers. Together we both will have life.
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