The bright sun brings welcome warmth as I walk through the cactus forest of the Rincon Mountain section of the Saguaro National Park just outside of Tucson, Arizona. Standing like tall sentinels overseeing the vastness of the desert, the improbable saguaros point my vision skyward, in some cases up to 175 or even 200 feet.
My primary aim in staying in Tucson for a few weeks has been to write, take hikes, see friends and savor the warmth. I was not expecting to be captivated by the Sonoran Desert; however, I have been completely humbled by it. With the diversity of the desert’s lifeforms stretching before me across thousands of acres, I sensed into my interior capacity for allowing in this ineffable mystery. Was I allowing anything to come between this in-the-moment experience and my Being or could I surrender my ordinary self to both the immense beauty and the harshness of this land?