H.ealing U.nderstanding G.athering

Life in the Desert.

While on Spring break this year I went camping to a lesser known Texas State Park known as Copper breaks. It has some great stargazing. Some little canyons. Solitude.

In my younger days, I really enjoyed hiking in the mountains of Colorado or in the hills of the Ozarks where I’m from. They are luscious landscapes that enchant. Every scene of beauty easily unfolds before your eyes. Life is so very abundant. Babbling brooks of melted snow. Delightful little wildflowers nestled under trees. Animals frolicking everywhere.

Life has been hard for various reasons and while I appreciate abundant life in an idyllic envrironment, I’ve found in recent years that canyons resonate deep in my soul.

It’s a pretty rugged terrain with red dust and lots of cactus. Life is hard for the species who make it there home.

Astonishingly though, life persists…and even thrives. The various wildflowers that shoot up between cactus prickles attest to that.

It’s often been easier for me to say that I’m in a desert when I go through hard periods in my life. A place void of life, an emotional drought, and bleak loneliness.

When I spent time in an actual desert climate I was able to see that although life was harder there, it was still there. And it was fascinating.

I also found that it wasn’t as lonely, there was solitude but not loneliness.

If you are tempted to feel soured by the thought of emotional drought or desert like conditions, I would challenge you to reframe that thought. Think of it as a garden of a different sort.