From Arizona with Love

From Arizona with Love by Meg Aw

Ever have FaceBook pop up a memory post that speaks directly to a current situation? That happened to me recently. Let me take you on my one-year journey. I arrived in Moscow, Russia October 1, 2018. That first winter was extremely difficult for me. This was the first time I’d lived in a cold climate and in a city so far north that the winter days had little daylight. Even those precious daylight hours were marked with cloudy, grey skies. I battled with loneliness and depression. April came, the days lengthened, and the snows began to melt. One day when I looked out my window, I saw a bird making a nest in a tree where the tree had been flat pruned. What a perfect place to build a nest. I couldn’t wait to see baby birds sitting in that nest and later learning to fly. It gave me the hope of new beginnings. It gave me energy. Fast forward one year. Due to the Coronavirus outbreak, my husband and I were banned from returning to our home in Moscow after taking a short vacation. We took refuge in my In-Law’s house outside Phoenix, Arizona. This desert land

is the complete opposite of Moscow. The natural landscape is cacti and rock, what many people call a wasteland. One day this week, while helping to weed the garden, I discovered a bird nesting in the middle of a cactus planted in a hanging pot. The nest contained two precious little eggs. Once again, this beautiful sign of spring and new life has given me energy and hope for better things to come.

Is your home and life beginning to look a lot like a desert?

Is your home and life beginning to look a lot like a desert; a barren landscape that doesn’t change for the foreseeable distance? Are you thirsting for “normalcy”? Due to circumstances beyond my control, I have found myself isolating in a literal desert. I have good news for you; there is beauty in the desert; you merely have to look for it. But you won’t ever find that beauty if you stare at a cactus and complain that it isn’t a rose bush. Your home may feel like a cactus covered in thorns that keep you in and your loved ones out. But those thorns are there for protection. Inside the cactus is precious water that will keep you alive; likewise, inside your home are those things that are of most

importance to you. Look closer at that cactus and you will find it is adorned with pretty flowers. Those are all the things in your home that make it special to you; your loved ones living with you, your pets, the artwork that you collected in your travels, the furnishings that “spoke to you” when you bought them, the photos that you haven’t had time to look through “in forever”, those favorite books that you have time to read again, the craft box or art easel that has been collecting dust. Rediscover the beauty of your homelife. Afterall, we always say “Home is where the heart is”. Sometimes that heart can be found in a cactus the desert.