Renewal in the Southwest

We’re heading back north after 5 months rooted in the southwest. I feel like I deeply mirrored nature all this year. The natural winter around the southwest was one of the wildest, wettest, snowiest, and mercurial in record years yielding raging waterfalls, flooding, record snowfall, early monsoon patterns and epic storms. I hiked The Wave covered in snow. Experienced Havasupai completely flooded, a chocolate brown fit of torrent. Internally I reflected this, experiencing the darkest season of winter I’ve had in at least 8 years. Then spring blossomed in such a way that plants I didn’t even know flowered were abloom in every color of the rainbow AND white. The air filled with fragrance all spring, around every corner wafts of delicious bouquets would delight your senses and awaken a smile at just experiencing these tiny colorful miracles with several senses at a time. I too came to life in the spring with the return of the sun, discovering my stride and smile again. Blooming stronger and steadier than ever before after having faced and endured a dark night of the soul and spending enough time with my past demons to be able to tuck them into bed with a kiss goodnight. We’re lucky as a nation to have places like the American Southwest to retreat to. Wild spaces open enough to escape, deeply contemplate, take long open drives, discover solitude, & fall in love with life again through exploration, adventure, and star filled night skies. I feel fortunate to have discovered this in college, a refuge harsh enough to soften the sharp edges of life and shape yourself with the fragments of nourishment you have to work for. The desert is tough love for tough hearts and its where I go to heal, take shape, and strengthen fortitude. Now its time to go home, right before summer. I’m not the same, never will be again. that’s the beauty of life. Each day we grow, change, flow, & can never step into our same versions again even if we tried. We know better than to stay the same. like the seasons, change is the only thing we can rely on to be consistent. One thing we can count on though, is if we keep her wild, the Southwest will keep our hearts free with each retreat.