Desert Secrets

I opened my eyes begrudgingly to the cold dry dawn of the desert. I glanced at the clock; 5:33 am, too early for anything. My dad had woken us all up at 2 in the morning to begin the long drive to my aunt’s house. I’d been sleeping on and off, waking up almost every hour, uncomfortable and stiff necked. While attempting to stretch out the stiffness in my body, I glanced out the window and saw… basically nothing. There was not much of anything to see, only miles of dust speckled by the gray green harshness of a few shrubs sunk in the dirt. I shifted to a new equally uncomfortable position in my chair, using my seatbelt as a pseudo pillow, and eventually fell back asleep.

I woke again later to a burst of light flooding the horizon. Color, vibrant and bright against the still dark purple of night, stained the wispy, trailing clouds in the sky. I was suddenly struck by the sheer vastness of the heavens and the eternity of the rolling desert land. There was so much to see, and my body’s fatigue from hours of travel seemed to be chased away by sheer wonder. This time, I wasn’t tempted to fall back sleep. I sat watching the beautiful sky and the rising, spreading colors of the sunrise until the magic ended and the sun came up. The desert was once again restored to the dull colors of beige and gray green. I turned away from my window, knowing that there was nothing more to be seen  now but the blazing blinding light of the ascending sun. With the light show over, I started busying myself by pulling out snacks and books and movies. The rest of the drive proved to be nothing special, with only emptiness to be seen out my window. In between movies, I would glance out and spot the only visible living things in the desert: cacti, looking like sentinels sporadically placed to protect the secrets of the desert. I knew, however, what secret the cacti were protecting: the secret beauty of the desert, a secret only to be discovered by those observant and watchful enough to notice it.

(Picture credit goes to another family member)

 

Of Watermelon Oreos, Mac and Cheese, and Sunshine

World hunger. Poverty. Disease. Death. Phone chargers that don't reach all the way to your bed. Failures and fears and just plain freaking out. Watermelon Oreos, brussel sprouts, empty lead pencils, and bags of chips which really turn out to be bags of air.
There's a lot of bad stuff in the world; enough to keep anyone miserable for a lifetime. I know most of us have formulated our own Why Life Sucks laundry lists that could effectively serve this lifetime of misery goal. We often read our lists to anyone willing to listen to us, and we thus further spread the misery. There's just so much that is wrong with the world, with our lives, and with ourselves, it's hard NOT to revert to this woe-is-me type attitude. It's the attitude that requires the least amount of effort on our part.
The true challenge is learning to see the good in everything. How often do we write Why Life's Amazing laundry lists? We've got pizza. Hope. Toothbrushes. Flowers. Joy. Colors and macaroni and cheese and sunrises and sunsets. We've got so much to be happy about! That's why I want to write about sunshine. I want to give a positive perspective to a negative world.
Now to an explanation of the second part of my name, "Scatterer". Scattering implies randomness, and that's exactly what I intended it to mean. I'm not writing on a certain topic or writing only to certain types of people. I want the freedom to write about anything, and I subsequently want the freedom to write to anyone. Sunshine is for everyone. Period.
I hope that I can be a Sunshine Scatterer and bring a little hope and joy into your lives.

-The Sunshine Scatterer