Three Lessons on Personal Growth
Arizona offers beautiful temperatures approximately three months out of the year. Beginning in March, temperatures begin to rise, and the sun warms the earth as the wildflowers come to life. By June, temperatures are consistently above 110 degrees. After enduring brutal winters, Arizona offers a warm welcome to those brave enough to visit during the summer months. After your first complaint, Arizona residents are quick to follow up with, “but it’s a dry heat.” Yes, yes, it is and so is an oven. When you can fry an egg on the sidewalk (which I have done successfully) and listen to your skin sizzle like bacon, you too will agree, it is hot. While this climate can be unforgiving during the day, the desert offers three unexpected reminders that teach powerful lessons on personal growth.
Saguaro Cactus Blossom: There is little else that can compare with a hike through the mountainous desert only to find local wildflowers or better yet, cacti in bloom. Cactus is a prickly plant not unlike many of us from time to time. However, if you are patient and take time to look, once a year, cacti produce beautiful flowers that generally last no more than twenty-four hours. They offer a sweet fragrance and along with them a reminder that while the plant is covered with dangerous spines throughout the year it rewards us with beautiful flowers.
At times, life can be very much like the spines on a cactus. There are challenges we must face and overcome. Eventually, the lessons we learned along the way leaves us with a satisfaction that we would never have experienced if it were not for the struggles. The next time you see a cactus in the middle of the hot desert, just remember that once a year a beautiful flower blooms to remind us that we are stronger because of what we endured.
Creosote Bush: This plant has many characteristics that allow it to adapt to the harsh environment. The creosote bush is common throughout western North America and if you have spent any time in Arizona, you probably saw several of them. The creosote bush is unique because over time it has developed qualities that allow it to outcompete other desert plants given the right opportunities. One of its adaptable characteristics is the ability to grow in various shapes depending on its needs within its surrounding. For example, a creosote bush can grow in a cone shape to allow the limited rainwater to travel down the center to its core root structure to better absorb moisture. The creosote bush can also grow in an upside-down bowl shape which offers protection to plants and animals. The plants and animals provide the creosote bush with increased nutrients from the surrounding soil. The second characteristic is less about adaptability and more just my favorite. After a punishing heat, there is nothing more refreshing then a desert rain. The creosote bush contains a variety of oils that produce an intoxicating smell following a monsoon downpour.
Just like the creosote bush, we all need to adapt to our environments. Everyone encounters times when we dream of something more than what we have and it is not selfish. We desire to improve professionally, work harder on personal relationships, or (gasp) focus on bettering ourselves. It requires an honest and humbling look into our own lives and an admission that we are not perfect. The creosote bush is not pretty. It is unassuming and very much looks like a weed. However, it embodies a determination to survive even in the most unpleasant of circumstances. The creosote bush can adapt to its environment and thrive because it seeks out opportunities to use what it has to make a positive impact.
Sunsets: Keeping Arizona calendar companies in business one picture at a time. To some people, the desert is beautiful. My dad loves Arizona sunsets and could never think of living any place else. To others, it is a landscape filled with shades of brown dirt that offers a home to lizards, scorpions, and jumping Chollas (another one of the desert’s fun jokes). However, after a long day full of hot sunshine, you can look up and see a desert sky painted in shades of red, orange, and purple. Arizona sunsets offer a healing beauty all their own. Every sunset is different based on the amount of light filtered by the atmosphere and the size of the particles floating around in the air. They are a reflection of the day.
Sunsets are unique and their coloring is dependent on a variety of external factors. We are much the same way. Our outlook on life, opinions, and perspectives are shaped by external forces around us and how we process this information. We are all flawed and imperfect. Likely many of us reflect on our day and can create a list of all the things we could have handled better, approached differently, or responded to more thoughtfully. At the end of the day, the beauty of our lives rests in the reflection we see. We should not strive to be perfect, but we should challenge ourselves to be a better version tomorrow.
Arizona is not my favorite place to live, but it holds some people, experiences, and characteristics that have made me who I am and would never trade. The desert teaches me new lessons every time I visit. We need to look past the spines to see the flowers, look beyond the weeds to see the refuge, and look through the dust to see the beauty. In the middle of what some consider scorched earth are reminders of the dreams that become realities when the strength of human spirit adapts to a harsh environment and, ultimately, becomes better in the end.
