Lessons from the Desert

So, in beginning to think about this post, I was reminded of the fact that Jesus also went into the desert. I am not religious, but I opened my little red Gideon bible, given to me in 1978, and it opened to this passage:
             Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

This was a prolonged chapter about fasting and temptation and Jesus sending the devil away. Was this the whole desert section? I`m not sure. Maybe I am confusing wilderness and desert. I live in the wilderness . . . I just visited the desert.

I loved the desert. I felt it taught me a number of valuable lessons. I`ll try to summarize them here:

1. what appears stark and barren may be thriving with beauty and life
2. look closely
3. breathe deeply
4. drink water
5. step carefully
6. attend to yourself in the heat

Oh, there`s more . . . but for me the desert was mostly just soothing with muted colours of sage and terra cotta; contrasting textures of pointed cacti, waving rounds of brush, corrugated mounds of red rock, and dusty, bloodish sand; delicate purple flowers white lacy branches; and sweeping blue skies.

E and I were there so he could ``conduct research.`` While he did that . . . I wandered about Albequerque . . . spying on the Breaking Bad RV tour and reading in sun soaked squares. Later, we retired to our desert resort . . .

So, as I fantasized about escaping our less-than-ideal marriage, I was lulled into acquiescence by our
luxurious surrounds.

This is marriage. I forgot our 2nd anniversary this year, cotton, but rode a horse named Cotton at the resort, as he munched his way through the desert to the shores of the Rio Grande at sunset. E rode ahead, on a horse named Topaz, a survivor of a rattlesnake bite. We reconciled ourselves to each other and whatever this is . . . struggling with stepkids and bio-parents, with our orange not apple marriage, with mid-life and foul tempers, with the messy richness of clashing cultures, bad manners, and good intentions.

Easier, please. I`d just like it to be a little easier.

Suffice it to say, I can relate to Walter White.