I love the mountains and I delight in the oceans. But, it's the desert that makes you dive hard into introspection. It is as unforgiving as any deity on Judgement Day; that Big Book opens and you are flayed at the gates, exposing all the rot. If you're lucky, the austral desert winds act as a heart surgeon, performing a resuscitation of self, of hope. The piquant bouquet of a creosote bush soothes the invisible cuts of daily life; worry discharges like an errant bolt of lightening into the hard ground. Rise, shake it off and seek the prehistoric deep into those river canyons. The desert is my solace.
