Essay I wrote for class after visiting Desert Botanical Gardens

“We are Part of Where we Come From”

     As Forrest Shreve (researcher,author,and teacher) said back in 1938, “ Our work,our thinking, our lives, our culture and social activities are shaped by the influences of the country in which we reside. Arizonans are a desert people.” I guess being born and spending my first twenty years here make me a desert person. Visiting the Desert Botanical Gardens for the first time in years, reminded me just how much of my past resides in Arizona.

     I've been back in the desert for almost a year and a half now and have had a hard time relating to it. I have been angry with the extra hot weather this year and failed to enjoy the purple,pink, and orange sunsets we are blessed with or the clear blue skies on breezy gorgeous days. Right now, one afternoon alone in nature brought to mind where I came from and where I currently am. Shreve's tells us, “The most significant lesson that desert dwellers can learn... is to regard themselves not as exiles from some better place, but as people at home in an environment to which life can be adjusted.”

     I was brought back to my faith in God by a conversation between two girls that could not have been older than six, talking about how god will protect you and keep his arms around you. It was here in the desert that I first learned of God and today I recalled how it has been lacking in my life recently.

As well, a walk through the amphitheater sparked a passion in me that has been dormant for a few months. I imagined I was presenting desert animals(specifically one of the Harris hawks I work with at the zoo) to an audience. I was happy educating guests again. Our show at the zoo has been canceled due to construction causing me to feel bored and unfulfilled. Simply the new location and beautiful surroundings is enough to pull me out from within.

     While walking the path I stumbled across two giant Cardon cacti provoking me to feel so small and thrown off guard. A sign read: Everything you need to know about life can be learned from plants. I can't help but agree. Quails forage for food, a hummingbird pollinates a baja fairy duster, and life in the desert goes on as usual. It is always good to be reminded just how insignificant we are in the bigger picture of things.

     All of these feelings just confirmed what had been there all along. Arizona, the desert, is a part of who I am and where I come from. This trip became less about nature and wholly about who I was as a person-past,present,and future. It will always be a strong reflection to look back at where I was going. It helped shape my work, my life, and my thinking. My past affects who I am today and where I will go in the future, and the country in which I reside helped shape that past.