Do You See?

It’s almost June which means that here in Tucson we are entering a dry, dry season.  I expect that we won’t see another drop of rain until the monsoons start, usually in July some time.  As you can see in the photo above it’s pretty crisp out there;  the canyon that was full of color a month ago has become a classic desert landscape.  That being said the desert is still full of unexpected delights, but it’s very easy to miss them if you’re not paying attention.

Getting My “Kid Mind” On

Yesterday during our walk we saw lots of families.  The weather was perfect and it was a little later than we usually go so this wasn’t surprising.  We were tooling along when we heard the excited voice of a 7 or 8 year old boy.  He had noticed this

and was calling to his mother who was grimly walking along ahead of him pushing a baby stroller up a hill.  He caught up with his mother and shared the wonder of his discovery (“it must have been an animal that did that!!!”), and his mother responded in some way that effectively ended the conversation.  While I wish that this boy’s mother could have joined with him in his wonder,  I started thinking about all that we don’t see because we are too preoccupied to look.  It’s virtually impossible to grow into adulthood and not have our childlike way of perceiving the world disappear.  But I fervently believe that we can reconnect with that “kid mind” and really start seeing.

Today I took my camera along on our walk with the intention of getting a shot of the cactus with the hole in it that so delighted the young boy.  Along the way I saw some incredible things.

Amid all the brown on this hillside I caught a glimpse of the yellow/orange blooms of a cactus that (if I remember previous years) blooms later than most.  I zoomed in for a closer shot:

These blooms aren’t quite as vivid as I remember but that bit of color was quite a treat.  The saguaros are also past their peak and most of them look like this:

A few of the flowers are hanging on but many have wilted.  But this was an unexpected sight:

At first I thought it was a pink flower but upon closer inspection:

It appeared to be a fruit!  And just in case I wasn’t completely sure:

This guy clearly dove in head-first!  Good for him.  Hopefully he will not be using our pool for a bird bath!

Finally on the road home we caught a glimpse of this:

With the zoom lens…

And last but not least:

Beauty is everywhere even when it doesn’t seem like there’s very much to see. Or hear. Or taste. Or smell. Or feel.

We just need to open up and let it in.