i’m clacking away at the computer keys here on the shaded porch of my weekend outpost in the high desert. to my left a range of mountains. to my right a shelter of boulders rises up behind the cabin. i arrived yesterday. down a series of blonde dusty roads.
past joshua trees and creosote.
a beautiful coyote.
all the way to here.
it’s breezy and delicious in the shade. the air a perfect temperature against bare skin. that’s what you notice first. how good the desert air feels.
how still.
how silent. except for the sound of wind. a hummingbird. an enormous bee. a cloth hammock flapping in the wind.
last evening and this morning i walked in joshua tree national park.
i love this place.
i bought an annual pass. hoping to come back this winter.
last night a blaze of stars. so bright.
so good to sit here reading. and writing. later i will paint some cactus into my sketchbook. take a nap.
go back to the park this evening. watch another quilt of stars appear in the sky.
being here in desert always makes me think of LARGEness.
the way wallace stegner wrote of it. this quote from a passage i read in one of his books many years ago has stayed with me. i don’t know how many times i’ve referred to it here on the blog. so many.
Largeness is a lifelong matter. You grow because you are not content not to. You are like a beaver that chews constantly because if it doesn’t its teeth grow long and lock. You grow because you are a grower: you’re large because you can’t stand to be small.
i love the way certain books & words live on inside of you. take up residence.
hope you’re happy out there. exploring, dreaming, thinking of largeness.
i’ll just be here. doing the same.
I love your desert photos! I live in the high desert, the intermountain west in the Mojave Desert where the altitude is 2200 ft. A few miles out of heavy traffic in town and you come to the edge of the “Big Empty,” the wide open desert where the only thing moving is the sun across the heavens and the stars at night. I love to drive on these lonely roads where you might pass one or two cars. I like the names of the towns: Lida, Mina, Ely, Elko, Goldfield, Tonopah. Makes me think back to olden days of covered wagons and prospectors, the Pony Express where the landscape hasn’t changed much since those early days. I’ve seen pronghorns, Elk herds, Desert Big Horn sheep, coyotes, and love the wonder of it all. Enjoy your desert interlude.
MaryAnn- as a Wallace Stegner lover and devoted follower to your various posts, I salute you! Your life work, your sense of adventure, your loving relationship with your sister, your love of travel and your entrepreneurship. All well thought out, enjoyable and worthwhile. Kudos, girl, Kudos!
Thank you for your lovely photos, thoughtful quote and words. I’d love to be there right now. Gorgeous ?
thank you for all of this, dear MaryAnn – I needed to see and hear it. xo
I live up here too! Pioneertown, I love it. I also enjoy your blog very much 🙂
I feel larger, just thinking of you in a place where all you can hear is the wind, and where you can see stars filling the sky. Thanks for sharing it all with us.
Just Glorious!
The desert has a beauty all it’s own ~
Enjoy!
Your writing is so poetic! Love the desert photos too. ?
A great post.. I love your photos of your life and the way you capture them in your journal too. I am so thankful to have done my very first drawing class( about 8 years ago at the tender age of 52 and in a class of school leavers). My tutor then said this to me , when i was almost in tears of frustration over my inability to “get it right”; if you want perfection.. take a photo and go home. You want to draw what you see.. stay right here , stay present and never stop looking..
I never have .I see the beauty where I never saw it before, I draw in my journal , occasionally painting/colouring my work. What a gift it is!We are going on holiday soon a real holiday..hat I having the most trouble with ? what art supplies to pack!
I’m going to Joshua Tree in November, and now your beautiful photos have given me a delightful teaser!
Tina
Awesome.
Love all your desert photos, but especially that coyote! I’ve been on vacation (in Washington state – kept a travel journal!) and missed getting in on books for your classroom, but I am so happy so many lovely people have helped. Recharge and relax, Mary Ann.
happiness for you MAM – I live in the high desert of AZ and love it’s largeness – it’s brightness – it’s openness – Ohhhhh I can go on and on : ) I’ve truly embraced the quiet and solitude – so enjoy – enjoy – enjoy it all : )
Ohhh – BTW – I am LOVIN “OMGouche” class – love it : ) I’ve just found the covers for my journal – YAY – now to cut paper, etc. – fun – fun – fun !!!
Blessings, Sandra in AZ : )
Mary Ann! The photographs! The quote! Your words! They brought tears. Of joy. You made my day a little better, sweetheart. Thank you.
enjoying your and stegner’s largeness words…headed for a low tide walk now, realizing that it’s the ‘largeness’ of sea and sky that makes me happy…. xox