meandering

Driving along, having finished some errands, I thought of this artificial oasis and wondered about its numbered days.  Whether in years or decades or more, they're numbered nonetheless.  The land is leveled, scraped clean, and wildlife driven out year after year.  I used to see jackrabbits in the center of town just 10 years ago but no more.  Were they starved out when they lost their feeding grounds?  Did they hop off to the perimeters of development?  I miss them.  All we’re left with are geckos, lizards, insects, and birds. It seems to me (in my sentimental imaginings) that justice or my idea of it should one day return this area to nature and a balance of people and animals that is sustainable as in the days of the ancient and not so ancient Indians.  In the past, we would drive past some Indian houses and make derisive comments about the dirt yards and the junk seen scattered around the property.  Well, miss smarty pants, I tell myself, at least they’re not gobbling up water to create the illusion that this is not, in fact, a desert.  They probably retain some respect for the land that goes deeper than even the “green” minded whites who’ve made this place home.  Yeah, all the planning and landscaping results in a visually pleasing effect, but at what cost?  When will the water run out?  When will we all give up our lawnmowers and the need to feel soft green grass under our bare feet?  If it’s grass we want, maybe we should go someplace where green grass grows naturally.  But the climate is so nice, and people want to have that and their green grass and non-indigenous flowers and swimming pools.  I’m not innocent in all this having once had a house with grass, flowers and pool in the past.  As for the future, it will be  a xeriscaped yard for me with plants that belong in the desert.  It's nothing new, but as more people go desert with their yards, it may make a difference. 

And then there are all those houses built after 2005 in a frenzy of greed.  More than a few developments remain with most of the units unsold.  The "new" houses sit empty and deteriorate month after month.  Maybe the jackrabbits can move in along with the scorpions, geckos and black widow spiders.  I'd like to see them take back even just a little of the desert.

posted by: behindtheblink at 19:57 | link | comments (6) |

posted by: behindtheblink at 23:36 | link | comments (4) |

Be soft in your practice. Think of the method as a fine silvery stream, not a raging waterfall. Follow the stream, have faith in its course. It will go its own way, meandering here, trickling there. It will find the grooves, the cracks, the crevices. Just follow it. Never let it out of your sight. It will take you....
                                                                            Sheng-yen

posted by: behindtheblink at 07:38 | link | comments (2) |