This blog a departure from my usual ones about what’s happening with my books as I undertake this exciting, painful and exhausting journey from lawyer to author. Right now my life is filled with distractions, but all that is happening with my books can be summed up in a single word – “nothing”. Well, that’s not entirely true, this week I will be an invited author at the AAUW Scottsdale Annual Author’s Luncheon.
Somehow, the books have taken a backseat position as I emerge almost as from a cocoon to the promise of renewal. All of a sudden it’s spring in Arizona. I find that it is impossible to focus. I’m too busy relishing the joy of being alive and just sensing the wonders about me. Springtime in Arizona is a wonderful restorative event that must be savored first hand to really understand what it is about.
To all you fans who traveled to Arizona for the Super Bowl thinking that you would kill two birds with one stone and get a bonus of wonderful sunshine in the middle of your winter while watching the game only to find Arizona with three days of consecutive rain – the first time in ten years — I want you to know that I’m sorry you didn’t get to share our glorious weather, but understand, it really is part of a secret plan. It is a scheme to lure here with promises of wonderful warm sunshine just to get you here. If you saw Arizona as it really is, you might want to stay. So to set the record straight, I just want you to know that as soon as you left Arizona to return to your snow and cold, our glorious weather came back with clear beautiful days, flowers in the deserts and sunsets to die for. Of course, it is a conspiracy to keep you from deciding that Arizona is so beautiful that you had to go home and sell everything to move here. Arizonans are never inhospitable. We would never do anything to make you feel unwelcome. So we roll out the welcome mat and pretend that three days of rainy and cold weather is normal and that we like it – just like we pretend that the summer isn’t hot because it’s a “dry heat”. The truth is that there are so few cloudy days that a few days of cloudy weather is nice for a change — however drizzling rain – that’s another story. We love to have you visit, but want to keep the best place to live in this country as a secret for ourselves. With more and more people moving here, it is harder and harder to keep this paradise to ourselves.
Just so you know what you are missing, as I sit writing this, my windows are open. It is bright and sunny outside with temperatures in the high sixties heading for the low eighties. The wonderful fragrance of orange blossoms fills the air. The streets are lined with plum trees displaying their annual formal dress of white blossoms. There is a gentle breeze whispering though the trees and yes, it feels like spring.
So, to you who had to go home to winter, you have my complete sympathy. Since I am originally from Buffalo, New York, I truly can feel your pain of enduring gray skies, snow at your feet, frost on your windshield and icy roads. For me, the rest of your winter will be endless sunshine, wide open spaces, beautiful mountains, balmy temperatures and endless flowers. I am sorry you missed it, but you can come back anytime and see the real Arizona without the Super Bowl or the golf tour or the car sales, but then it wouldn’t be as much fun. So you see, we really do want you to come, we just don’t want you to stay.
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